
A drug driver found to be four times the legal limit after smoking cannabis has been handed a 12-month motoring ban.
Graham Gaunt, 36, was stopped by police while behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta at Carleton Road in Penrith at around 9-45pm on July 10.
Due to a strong smell of cannabis from inside the vehicle, a police officer carried out a drugs wipe test which came back positive. After being arrested, blood samples were taken and analysed.
These revealed that Gaunt, of Sandersons Croft, Kirkby Thore, was four times the legal limit for the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. When he appeared at Carlisle magistrates’ court this morning, he admitted a charge of driving a vehicle with the specified controlled drug above the limit.
Gaunt, who was not legally represented during the court hearing, said it was a passenger who had been smoking cannabis in the car at the time, and not him. But he admitted he had smoked five hours previously.
Gaunt told the court his wife was pregnant and said a driving ban would make it difficult to visit hospital and would “probably” mean the loss of his factory job in Penrith. “It was a really stupid mistake on my behalf. I fully accept that. I understand the repercussions and I do apologise,” he said from the dock.
Magistrates imposed a £120 fine plus costs and a victim surcharge. Gaunt was banned from driving for 12 months with immediate effect.