Three-year driving ban for Walpole St Peter man

A Walpole St Peter man has been banned from the roads for three years for drug-driving.

A previous conviction for drink-driving in 2014 meant that Simon Matthew Barrett was liable to a minimum 36-month disqualification for a second similar offence within a ten-year period.

Appearing before Lynn Magistrates' Court on Thursday, the 29-year-old, of Church Road, pleaded guilty to drug-driving on April 27.

Barrett was stopped by police in Wheatley Bank, Walsoken, and failed a roadside drug wipe.

"He became upset and told officers he had smoked cannabis the evening before," said prosecutor Denise Holland.

A later test showed a reading of 7 micrograms of a cannabis metabolite per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit is two.

Mitigating for Barrett, solicitor Andrew Cogan said it had actually been a couple of nights earlier that his client had smoked the drug.

He added that Barrett's partner and a child were in the car too and he wouldn't have driven if he thought he was a danger to them or other members of the public.

"This has been a salutory lesson and he's not driven since," the solicitor said.

As well as the ban, Barrett was fined £120 and told to pay £34 victim surcharge.