A DRUG-driver was caught out on a busy Herefordshire main road after a payment to his insurance company failed.

Glyn Steven Powell entered guilty pleas to one count of using a motor vehicle on a road without third party insurance and two counts of driving while over the drug limit when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford in January.

Police had been on patrol on the A449 in Ross-on-Wye when they spotted Powell behind the wheel of a grey Ford Fusion at 1.10am on November 5, prosecutor Eleanor Peart said.

 

Officers pulled him over as his car was showing as uninsured, the court heard, reporting that he had told them that a payment had bounced in October.

Powell was also asked to take a roadside drug test, which returned a positive result for cocaine.

An evidential blood test revealed that he had 32 microgrammes of cocaine and 800 microgrammes of the class A controlled drug's metabolite, benzoylecgonine, per litre of blood. The respective legal limits are 10 and 50 microgrammes.

Chris Read, for Powell, said that the 36-year-old had only been pulled over because his vehicle had come up on the police computer as uninsured, and that he disagreed with the police version of events.

"He makes payments on a monthly basis, but a payment had been refused," Mr Read said.

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"He was not aware of this and had not received a notification from his insurance company. He was surprised when police showed him it had lapsed, so the comment about the payment bouncing should have a question mark on it."

Mr Read said Powell had only found out exactly what had happened after he had got home and checked with his insurance company.

He said he is not a regular drug user and had taken the cocaine some 24 to 36 hours before he was stopped, not realising it would remain in his system.

Powell, who is of The Claytons in Bridstow, Ross-on-Wye, was fined £634 and disqualified from driving for 12 months. He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £135 and a £254 victim surcharge.

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