Taxi Driver Online

Chester Magistrates Court bans taxi driver for cocaine drug driving

https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/ ... ine-level/

A CHESTER taxi driver who was caught above the legal limit for cocaine while driving was not working at the time, a court has heard.

Daniel Howard, 38 and with a care of address of Plas Dinas, was due to be sentenced at Chester Magistrates Court on Tuesday, October 27.

It relates to an incident Foryd Road in Kinmel Bay in Conwy, North Wales, from July 3 this year when police stopped his vehicle.

He was found to have 55mcg of cocaine in his system and more than 400mcg of cocaine breakdown Benzoylecgonine in his system.

Prosecutor Lisa Maguire said there was an issue that police believed that Howard was working at the time he was stopped.

But, she added, the defendant provided evidence that while was using the vehicle, he was not working at the time.

She said: “The defendant was driving a taxi at the time of the offence and was caused to stop by officers due to drug markers because of the vehicle.

“He says that he was not driving for hire or reward but was dropping friends off at the pub and then went back to make a second trip.

“He has shown documentation showing that he was not working and there is no evidence within the prosecution bundle that he was working so all evidence points towards that.

“No previous convictions for driving offences.”

Howard Jones, defending, highlighted his prompt guilty plea on first occasion.

He said: “This should have gone for a Newton hearing in the first instance, but it was clarified that he was not working during the incident.

“In body worn footage, he explained that he was dropping people off at the pub and his worksheets have backed up that he wasn’t working.

“I would call for a financial penalty and a ban.

“Regarding the offences, he was going through a bad time and was seeking solace in drugs.

“But has now sorted himself out.”

Magistrates said: “We’ve seen the extensive probation report, but we agree that this can be a financial penalty.

“The level of drugs in your system was away above what it should be.”

He was handed a £400 fine plus ordered to pay a surcharge of £160 and costs of £85.

Howard was handed a 14-month ban starting from his interim disqualification in September.

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IDFIMH

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IDFIMH

So what level of drugs should it have been?

OK, I get that there's a certain level of tolerance because of accidental contamination, or whatever, but it's a slightly odd way to put it

And the piece doesn't say what the limits actually are, so stating the actual levels recorded in his system is a tad uninformative.

I mean, in drink driving reports the limit is usually stated alongside the recorded reading, and that's even the case when many readers will actually know the legal limit. Not so with regard to drugs...

how about NIL

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector