Magistrates in Pembrokeshire stated that they had noticed an increased number of young people being brought before the court for drug-driving related offences when sentencing a twenty-year-old man this week.
Ethan Jamieson of Heol Dyfed, Fishguard, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving a motor vehicle on Essex Road in Pembroke Dock with a quantity of cannabis in his system when he appeared at Haverfordwest magistrates court on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that the incident occurred at around 11.30 pm on March 11, when police officers on patrol conducting routine stop checks pulled Mr. Jamieson over in his Ford Fiesta after he had travelled across the Cleddau Bridge.
“Officers could smell cannabis in the vehicle, and the driver said that he’d had some a couple of days ago,” he said, explaining that the defendant had already appeared in court earlier that year for similar offences.
Mr. Jamieson was handed a driving ban for 12 months back in April after being arrested having been found to be eight times the controlled drug limit when he drove to a fast food restaurant at Merlins Bridge, Haverfordwest in January.
Defence solicitor Tom Lloyd told the court that there had been no evidence of bad driving on his client’s part.
He explained that Mr. Jamieson had been going through a ‘difficult time’ and was effectively homeless at the time of the offence.
“He was driving as he’d had an offer to stay in a hostel that night - other than that he was living in his vehicle,” he said.
On sentencing, chief magistrate Dr Iain Robertson-Steel told the defendant that drug-driving was a ‘very serious offence’ and it was a worry that the court was seeing an increase in the number of young people that were being sentenced for such offences.
Magistrates disqualified Mr. Jamieson from driving for three years, and fined him £120 for the offence.
He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge.