Elm drug-driver took cannabis '˜days before' police stop, court told

Magistrates were told the case of Ashley Coupland was a “cautionary tale” of the risks associated with the drug when he appeared in court in King’s Lynn yesterday.

Coupland, 24, of The Dale, Elm, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while above the specified limit, having been stopped by police on September 30.

Jane Foster, prosecuting, said officers requested a saliva sample after smelling a herbal form of the class B drug.

When that proved positive, Coupland was arrested and subjected to further tests, which showed he had 6.7 micrograms of the drug’s active ingredient in a litre of blood. The legal limit is two.

Alison Muir, mitigating, said her client had taken the drug with friends “four or five days” prior to being stopped and insisted he was only an occasional user.

She said: “This is a somewhat cautionary tale. If he had thought for a moment there was still that level, he would never had driven and never have taken it anyway.”

Coupland was banned from driving for a year, fined £110 and ordered to pay £40 costs, plus a £30 victim surcharge.