Wigan drug driver banned from the road for four years

A Wigan man who turned to drugs after losing his job has been banned from driving for four years after being caught behind the wheel after taking cocaine and cannabis.

Kevin Lindley, 28, was pulled over last October in the early hours of the morning and tested positive for the cocktail of Class A and Class B drugs.

And magistrates at Wigan and Leigh Courthouse heard that, in the time between the offence and his sentencing date, he had also been convicted of drink driving.

Lindley, of Douglas House in Scholes, was banned from the road until 2024.

Prosecuting, Tess Kenyon told the court how police officers had been on patrol in the Scholes area at around 3am on October 19 when a Ford Fiesta flagged up on their system as being uninsured.

They followed the car for a short distance before it pulled into a car park in Warrington Lane.

Officers stopped the driver, Lindley, and noted a strong smell of cannabis coming from the car.

He cooperated fully with a roadside drugs test, which came back positive, and he was taken to the police station for further tests.

Both cocaine and THC - the psychoactive element contained in cannabis - were found in his blood, at levels of 24ug/l and 236ug/l respectively - ug/l indicating micrograms per litre.

Lindley was bailed while police investigated the incident.

But Ms Kenyon told the magistrates that in early March, just weeks before he was due to be sentenced, Lindley was again pulled over by police, this time for drink driving, and he received a 36 month driving ban. The level of alcohol in his breath was 68mgs. The legal limit is 35mgs.

Defending Lindley, Duncan Phillips told the court that his client was “just over the limit” for both drugs and cooperated fully with the police, adding that there was no suggestion from the police that his driving had been impaired by the substances.

Mr Phillips explained that Lindley had previously been self-employed as a plastered, but lost his job following an accident which left him hospitalised for two weeks.

He turned to drink and drugs after he “found himself at a very low ebb”, said Mr Phillips, but said Lindley made no excuses and accepted that he had made poor choices.

Lindley also expressed his remorse to the bench for his actions, saying: “I apologise for what I’ve done. I made bad choices. I was in a very low place at the time.”

He was disqualified from driving for four years and ordered to pay an £80 fine, court costs of £85 and a £32 victim surcharge.