A Merritt resident who commutes 170 kilometres a day to work at New Gold won't be getting behind the wheel anytime soon.

Ray Bangsund, 42, was prohibited from driving and fined $1,500 in provincial court on Thursday.

Bangsund told Judge Stephen Harrison that he wasn't aware that it is against the law to sleep in a vehicle while impaired if keys are left in the vehicle's ignition. He has two past convictions for drunk driving, but they date back to the 1980s and '90s.

"It's a harsh lesson, Mr. Bangsund, but that is the law," the judge told him.

Bangsund has had to rent an apartment in Kamloops in order to continue his employment during the driving prohibition.

Under the Motor Vehicle Act, it is an offence to have care or control of a vehicle while impaired, so that sleeping in your vehicle while drunk can be just as criminal as driving it.

(Kamloops Daily News)