A DRUG driver caught behind the wheel on New Year's Day whilst more than EIGHT times the legal limit for cocaine has been fined nearly £1,000 at Greenock Sheriff Court.

Mark Lapsley was driving on the town's Dalrymple Street on January 1 last year when he was stopped by police.

He pleaded guilty to driving a van while the proportion of cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine in his blood was 407 micrograms per litre. The legal limit is 50 micrograms.

Lapsley, 25, was also charged with being in possession of cannabis on the same day, however, his plea of not guilty to this alegation was accepted by the Crown.

The 25-year-old came to the attention of officers on mobile patrol on West Stewart Street at around 4:50pm.

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Fiscal depute Karen Yuill said: “There was a reason for the vehicle to be stopped.

“The accused complied with the stop and when police approached the vehicle they had noted a smell of cannabis.

“They asked a road policing unit to attend and perform a drug swipe on the accused.”

Lapsley, of Grant Street, failed a roadside test and was thereafter arrested and conveyed to Greenock police station to provide a blood sample for further analysis.

Greenock Telegraph:

Defence solicitor Paul Cook told the court: “He had been in attendance at a New Year’s party at which point drugs had been consumed.

“Mr Lapsley does not consider himself to have a problem with addictions.

“He appears as a first offender. He accepts that there will be a disqualification from driving.”

Sheriff Shelagh McCall told Lapsley: “I recognise that you’re a first offender but it’s a very high reading you’ve got.”

She ordered him to pay a fine of £940 and also banned him from holding or obtaining a driving licence for a period of 20 months.