A Monkton man has been given a lengthy motoring ban after admitting driving with alcohol and drugs in his system.
Twenty-four-year-old Nathan John Ferrier, of Angle Road, pleaded guilty to driving his Ford Ka in Pembroke with 63 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, exceeding the prescribed limit, when he appeared at Haverfordwest magistrates court on Tuesday.
The defendant also admitted further charges of driving with 039 microgrammes per litre of cocaine, and 176 microgrammes per litre of the drug Benzoylecgonine, a compound of cocaine, in his blood.
Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that Mr. Ferrier was stopped by police officers on routine patrol at 2 am on October 14.
“Officers performed a stop check on St. Daniel’s Hill. There was no allegation of bad driving.
“When he was spoken to, Mr. Ferrier was asked if he’d been drinking or taken drugs by officers, and he admitted he’d had a couple of joints, a line of coke and two pints that night,” explained Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
Defence solicitor Mike Kelleher told magistrates that his client had no idea what the second drug charge related to, but assumed it was something mixed into the cocaine he had taken.
“He was fully co-operative with the police and pleads guilty. Losing his licence is likely to mean that he becomes unemployed, as he works laying patios and gardens, and was given the work specifically to drive the van,” he said.
“I assume that these charges will lead to three periods of disqualification, which is the first time I’ve seen that in this court,” added Mr. Kelleher.
For the drink-driving offence, magistrates disqualified Mr. Ferrier for a period of 17 months, and fined him £220.
He was also banned from driving for 17 months for each of the drug-driving charges, and fined a further £220.
Mr. Ferrier was ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge.