Drug driver caught twice in a week gets three-year road ban
A man caught drug driving twice in a week in Telford has been banned from the road for three years.
Police spotted Lawrence Connor, 31, in a Suzuki Vitara in Victoria Road, Wellington, on August 15 and stopped him. After speaking with him the officers suspected he may have taken drugs so conducted a roadside swipe test, which was positive.
A subsequent blood test found he had 3.1 microgrammes of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (a psychoactive component of cannabis) per litre of blood. The legal limit is 2mcg per litre.
Then just after 3pm on August 20 Connor was stopped in the same vehicle in Furnace Lane, Trench. He was again tested at the roadside and had a blood sample taken, and he was found to have 200mcg of benzoylecgonine, a byproduct of cocaine, per litre. The driving limit for that substance is 50mcg per litre.
Connor, of Burnside, was arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of drug driving. He was sentenced at Telford Magistrates Court this week.
Probation officer Phil Kaleta told the court Connor had started taking cannabis to "self-medicate" after the death of his mother, and "then it slipped up to cocaine".
"To his credit [...] he is engaging with the mental health team, he is medicated and he is seeing the mental health team once a month."
Chair of the magistrates bench Judith Hoy handed down the sentence: a £120 fine and 36-month driving disqualification, backdated to the date of Connor's guilty plea in January.
Connor must also pay a £48 victim surcharge and £170 towards court costs.