A DRUG-DRIVER was caught just yards from his Herefordshire house as he headed out to pick up a takeaway, magistrates have heard.

Jamie Ridge entered a guilty plea to one count of driving while over the drug limit when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Police had stopped Ridge behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta in Leominster's Cheaton Close at 4.15pm on August 31, prosecutor Mark Hambling told the court.

Ridge was asked to take a roadside drug test and arrested after it returned a positive result.

An evidential blood test taken in custody revealed he had 448 microgrammes of controlled class A drug cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. The legal limit is 50 microgrammes.

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Chris Read, for Ridge, said the 29-year-old had driven "literally 10 yards" before he was pulled over by police.

"He was going to town to collect a takeaway for him and his family," Mr Read said.

"He had used cocaine the previous day and it appears, therefore, that the cocaine had gone from his system but the metabolite benzoylecgonine remained.

"He had no idea that it would remain in his system for so long."

The court heard that Ridge has been going through a difficult time, having lost his job, and that his brother had crashed his car, leaving him struggling to find a new job.

"Finances are very tight as a result of this at the moment," Mr Read said.

Ridge, who is of Cheaton Close, Leominster, was fined £120 and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for 12 months. He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £135 and a £48 victim surcharge.

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