A Milford Haven woman who was wrongfully stopped for having no insurance, but was then caught driving under the influence of drugs has been given a ban.

Twenty-five-year-old Alannah-Jay Britton of Greville Road appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday to admit the offence of driving under the influence of drugs.

Prosecutor, Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that at around 8.20 pm on January 23, police wrongly stopped Ms. Britton at Merlins Bridge, Haverfordwest for having no insurance after the police national computer (PNC) said the defendant didn’t have any.

However, this was not the case as the details on the PNC hadn’t been updated, the court was told.

The police officer then noticed a smell of cannabis from the vehicle and the defendant said she had been smoking a joint.

She was then arrested and gave a reading of 3.7 ug, the legal limit being two.

Defence solicitor David Elvy told magistrates it was Ms. Briton’s first appearance in court and hopefully it would be her last.

He explained that his client suffers from an eating disorder and found that smoking cannabis was helpful as she thought it would clear her system.

He said that there had been no problem with her driving, but said Ms. Briton made a mistake in getting behind the wheel after smoking the joint.

Magistrates fined the defendant £120 and ordered her to pay prosecution costs of £85 along with a victim surcharge of £32.

She was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.