A MAN has been banned from driving for three years after he was caught drug driving while nearly five times over a specified limit.

Stephen Armstrong, of Goldsmith Street in Barrow, was stopped by road traffic officers in his Ford Transit van at the Junction 38 Tebay Service Station on January 12 this year.

The 42-year-old was asked by police to conduct a drugs wipe test at the roadside which came back positive for Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol – the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

As a result, he was arrested and taken to custody where he provided a lowest reading of 9.0 ug/L. Government have set the legal ‘zero tolerance’ limit at 2.0 ug/L.  

At South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court on July 3, Armstrong was disqualified from driving for 36 months and ordered to complete a four-week curfew as part of a community order sentence.

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £85.