POLICE IN MELBOURNE have caught 14 drink-drivers in an operation aimed at motorists who try to avoid booze buses by using back streets.

The blitz in the inner suburb of St Kilda, found one in every 33 drivers tested were over the legal limit. A 27 year-old St Kilda man blew the highest figure for the night, his 0.157 blood-alcohol reading placing him over three-times the legal limit.

Last week’s St Kilda blitz was the second such operation undertaken by Victoria Police. For those who may be thinking the crack-down is temporary, VicPol warns that it will continue to maintain a presence in Melbourne’s back streets until drivers heed the anti-drink driving message.

“To drink and drive at anytime defies logic, but to do it when there is a concerted campaign to catch these idiots is plain stupid,” Victoria Police Sergeant Bob Hope said.

“If drivers want to risk their own lives and the lives of others by drink driving they can expect to be doing a lot of walking in the near future.”

VicPol says future operations in the inner suburbs will take place on different nights of the week; drivers will have no warning of a breath-testing station until they are upon one.