A DRUG-driver who said he was picking up a sick child from school has been banned from the roads after magistrates found it was not an emergency.

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

The court heard from prosecutor Paul Johns that the 50-year-old had been caught out in Leominster's Caswell Road after getting behind the wheel of a Rover 25 while over the drug-driving limit on March 1.

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An evidential blood test revealed that he had 2.5 microgrammes of class B controlled drug cannabis product delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol per litre of blood. The legal limit is two microgrammes.

Francis, of Caswell Road, Leominster was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £120 for the offence, with magistrates saying that they had taken his guilty plea into account, but that they did not accept his special reasons argument as picking up a sick child from school is not an emergency.

He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £135 and a £48 victim surcharge.