Friday 19 March 2010

Passing Cops Get Whiff Of Spliff


A driver so high on cannabis the telltale smell of the drug was sucked into a passing police car’s air conditioning – tipping-off cops - has been slapped with a two year road ban.

Scott Ashworth, 25, of The Oaks, Abbeymead, Gloucester, pleaded guilty at London’s Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court to driving while unfit through drugs in Copeland Road, Peckham, on October 18, last year.

“There is high culpability here and high potential harm,” District Judge Timothy Stone said. “He was under the influence of cannabis. His car reeked of the stench of it.”

Ashworth also pleaded guilty to possessing a small quantity of cannabis on the same occasion and failing to surrender to bail.

The court (pictured) was told it was 7 pm when officers spotted Ashworth driving his VW Golf “extremely slowly” with the strong stench of cannabis being inducted into the patrol car’s air-conditioning.

Ashworth was stopped and appeared “dazed and confused” when quizzed by police who arrested him for driving while under the influence.

A blood sample he gave at the station tested positive for cannabis and Ashworth admitted the amount found on him was for his own use.

“He was manifestly a danger to everybody,” announced Mr. Stone sentencing Ashworth to a twelve-month community order, including 200 hours unpaid work.

He also disqualified Ashworth from driving for two years and ordered him to pay £85 costs.

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