Driver banned after positive drugs test days after taking cocaine

A DRIVER found with the major metabolite of cocaine in his system days after taking the drug has been banned from the road. 

Stuart Rendall, from Mossbank, admitted driving a van on Lerwick’s Holmsgarth Road on 17 November last year with 56 microgrammes of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood in his system.

The legal limit is 50 microgrammes per litre of blood.

Defence agent Liam Mcallister said this was a “minor reading”, which had come after he was stopped by police and given a swipe test.

Rendall, 40, had taken cocaine “some days before”, adding it was done “foolishly by him, at a house party”.

While he said it was a number of days later that he was stopped by police, Mcallister said he had spoken to experts who told him it “all very much stacks up” that the drug would still have been in his system.

He said if Rendall had been stopped anywhere between five to seven hours later, it is likely he would have passed the wipe test.

Losing his licence would have a “significant impact” on Rendall, his solicitor said, particularly given his rural location.

“The loss of his licence is because of his foolish error and misjudgment,” Mcallister added.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank remarked that this was a “slightly strange” situation.

He said if Rendall had been just a few microgrammes over the alcohol limit, he would have been able to offer him a third off his ban – by giving him the chance to do the drink-drivers rehabilitation course.

However he said the law was constrained when it came to drug driving charges.

Mcallister agreed, saying it was “particularly frustrating in these circumstances” that there was “nothing available” to the court to discount the ban.

Sheriff Cruickshank said he had no option but to ban Rendall from driving for 12 months. He also fined him £300.