Court hears drug driver from Marsland St James was 'struggling' at time of offences

A young woman struggling with the serious decline of her father’s mental health was caught drug- driving and drink-driving on consecutive days.

Samantha Pask, 23, committed the second offence four days before her dad died by suicide, King's Lynn Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday.

She had been caught with two drugs in her system while driving on Magdalen Road in Tilney St Lawrence on November 18 last year.

Tests showed she had 44 micrograms of cocaine per litre of blood - the legal limit being ten – and seven micrograms of a cannabis body breakdown product, the specified limit being two.

Pask had been pulled over in a BMW due to it having a defective headlight.

Cannabis found in the car was dealt with by a caution.

She admitted smoking the drug the day before and a drug wipe proved positive for cannabis and cocaine.

The court was told she had one previous conviction – a drink-driving matter on November 19, which did not aggravate the drug-driving offences as it post-dated them.

Pask, 23, of Smeeth Road, Marshland St James, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug-driving.

In mitigation, solicitor Hugh Cauthery said his client was in a “very brittle mental state” at the time due to her father’s decline.

“She was not in her right mind. Her father took his own life on November 23 and she had been struggling in the days leading up to his death,” he added.

Pask, who had been banned in December for 17 months for the drink-drive offence, was given two 16-month bans for the drug-drive matters, to run concurrently.

She was also fined £300 and ordered to pay £105 costs and £34 victim surcharge.