Pretoria High Court judge Nkola Motata smelled like alcohol on the night of his car accident, a metro police officer told the judge's drunken driving trial on Wednesday.

"I can't say whether he was sober or not. However, I can say that there was some alcohol that smelled from him," metro police officer Moahladi Daniel Modibo told the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court.

At the scene of the accident on 6 January 2007, when Motata crashed his Jaguar into the perimeter wall of a Hurlingham property, Motata was "speaking like stammering".

Modibo said that when he arrived at the scene with his partner, Motata refused to get out of his car.

Modibo opened the door twice, but Motata closed it each time, until eventually Modibo put his foot in the way.

He then handcuffed Motata and brought him to the metro police car, in which he was taken to the Hillbrow district surgeon for a blood test.

Modibo said Motata told him at the time of his arrest that he would sue the metro police.

"I informed him it is his right if he would like to sue metro police," said Modibo.

Sapa