THE alcohol on his breath was unmistakable.

But the portly man, who was driving a big Malaysian-registered Japanese sedan, appeared remarkably lucid and sober to the untrained eye. No bloodshot eyes, unsteady gait or slurred speech.

He was even able to engage in a five-minute discussion with two Traffic Police officers on how his female companion was going to get home - across the Causeway - without him or his car.

'Let me do the test again, please,' he pleaded in halting English.

'It will be the same. You have to be tested again back at the station,' one of the officers said patiently.

The man, along with 25 other motorists, was arrested for drink driving in an islandwide Traffic Police operation that started close to midnight on Friday and went on till dawn.

In the 71/2-hour operation, 99 people were asked to take the breathalyser test. Of the 26 who failed, 24 were men and two were women. They were between 25 and 45 years old. Nine persons were also issued summons for speeding.

The operation, which had road blocks up at at least three locations - Whitley Road, Maxwell Road and Nicoll Highway - came at a time when drink driving has been hogging the spotlight.

Arrests have gone up by 27 per cent since 2004, from 2,929 cases to 3,733 cases last year. In the first nine months of this year, 11 people died because of drink driving. Last year's fatality was 25.

Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.