A TOP Gwent Police officer slammed a "selfish and hardcore" element of motorists who continue to put lives at risk by drink driving.

Chief Inspector John Pavett spoke out after the results of a summer crackdown on drink and drug driving were revealed.

More than 100 motorists refused or failed tests after being stopped by police. In total 110 drivers refused or failed out of 2,132 tests carried out by officers.

That works out as 5.2 per cent of drivers -above last summer's 4.87 per cent despite continued high profile national campaigns.

Chief Inspector Pavett, from Gwent Police's Road Policing Unit, said: "We are clearly still dealing with a hardcore of irresponsible drivers who may well recognise the consequences of driving while unfit but are selfish enough to take the risk of killing or seriously injuring themselves or someone else.

"We live in a society that will not tolerate this type of behaviour and it is the small minority of offenders who cause great suffering to those families who lose a loved one because someone has got in a vehicle while under the influence."

The national campaign was launched on July 30 across all 43 police forces in the UK.

This year, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) incorporated drug driving into the campaign, and the Field Impairment Test (FIT) was used to identify those people driving while intoxicated by illicit or prescribed drugs.

Two motorists took the FIT test during the campaign and both were arrested for being unfit to drive.

Exactly half of those who failed drink driving tests were under the age of 25. A total of 842 under 25s were tested during the campaign.

Chief Insp Pavett added: "Gwent Police is not willing to tolerate this type of offending and it was our intention to crack doen heavily during this campaign."