Drug driver avoids jail despite previous convictions
A drug driver from has avoided jail despite previous similar motoring offences.
George Peter Smith, 31, from Shrewsbury, confessed that he had taken cocaine the day before he was stopped by police in Trench Road, Telford, on October 3 last year.
Smith has previous convictions for drink and drug-driving in 2012, drink-driving in 2014, and appeared in court in February this year on another drink-drive charge.
On this latest occasion, Smith was pulled over by officers in his Volkswagen Golf after they noticed the car was damaged and missing its front number plate.
He was later drug tested and found to have in his system an excess amount of benzoylecgonine - a substance made through the metabolisation of cocaine.
Smith, of Corndon Crescent, Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving with a proportion of a controlled drug above the specified limit.
He said: "I had taken some cocaine the previous day. I wasn't aware of the other substance. It's unfortunate for me."
Smith was ordered to pay £1,051 in fines and court costs, and banned from driving for 14 months.
