Ashfield driver SEVEN times over drug limit after swallowing unlit joint at police stop
An Ashfield driver who panicked and swallowed an unlit cannabis joint after he was pulled over for running red lights was SEVEN times above the drug-drive limit, a court has heard.
Richard Burrows was driving a black Vauxhall Vectra when he overtook a police car and drove across the junction of Annesley Road and Derby Road, in Kirkby, on April 1, said prosecutor Katherine Wilson.
He told officers he had been hurrying to get his girlfriend home as she needed the toilet and he’d slowed and checked before crossing the junction.
A test revealed he had 14 microgrammes of cannabis when the specified limit is two microgrammes, and he has a relevant driving offence from September 2019.
Lucy Whittaker, mitigating, said: “He had not smoked any cannabis that day - the reason for his high reading is he had an old joint in his car from the evening before.
“At the time he occasionally smoked at night to relax before bed. He panicked, scrunched (the joint) up into his hand, and put it into his mouth and swallowed it.
“We will now never know what his actual reading was because he swallowed a whole joint. He didn’t feel great after doing that.”
Ms Whittaker said Burrows suffers with anxiety and depression after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident that wasn’t his fault in 2019.
The inevitable disqualification will have a serious impact on his partner, she added.
Burrows, aged 37, of Common Lane, Hucknall, admitted drug-driving when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Tuesday.
He was banned for three years, fined £180, and ordered to pay a £48 surcharge with £95 costs.