KEY POINTS:
A 52-year-old man has been charged with driving a ride-on lawnmower while drunk.
Richard Gunn, from Dargaville, was seen by police driving through the Northland town at 9.30 last Thursday night.
He was stopped and asked to get the mower off the road.
The police officer then discovered the man on the mower was a disqualified driver who they suspected had been drinking.
Gunn allegedly blew 926mcg per litre of breath, well above the legal limit of 400mcg.
The mower was impounded for 28 days.
Gunn is to appear in the Dargaville District Court tomorrow on charges of careless driving, driving while disqualified and driving with excess breath alcohol.
He says he is still puzzled by his arrest.
"I can accept it might have been a little dangerous because I didn't have lights," he told 3 News.
"But it wasn't DIC because it wasn't a car."
Dargaville's Commercial Hotel duty manager Peter O'Neill said last night that Gunn was not a regular customer.
Last Thursday night when the incident happened he said Gunn had been in the bar "for about 30 seconds" before he was refused service.
"He's been refused service before and he's only been in the bar twice in the nine months I've been here."
Mr O'Neill said he could not say why Gunn had been refused service "but there may be other issues".
Gunn is not the first person to jump on a ride-on after a few beers.
Legendary American country singer George Jones is said to regularly hop on his lawnmower to get to the nearest bar, which is over 16km away.
