Drug driver caught at the wheel in Top Valley after cops received tip-off

John Wilson's grey Ford Focus was stopped on Erewash Gardens, at 12.50pm, on September 12, last year, after police received a tip-off from a member of the public, said prosecutor Lottie Tyler.

He failed a roadside drug test and admitted taking cocaine two or three nights before.

A blood test revealed he had 23 mcgs of cocaine, when the specified limit is 20 mcgs, and 800 mcgs of benzoylecgonine, a by-product of cocaine, when the limit is 50 mcgs.

Wilson, 38, of Labray Road, Calverton, previously admitted driving under the influence of the same drugs when he appeared in court on December 17, last year.

He was fined £120 and received a 15-month ban, for the offences which were committed on Muirfield Road, Nottingham, on October 14.

Nick Walsh, mitigating, said Wilson had "offences going back a number of years, but they largely reflect a younger man who was a regular user of class A drugs."

He said there was a "long gap" in his offending while he was clean of drugs and working with his father as a plasterer.

But his father died in 2019 and "for a period of time he returned to using class A drugs and it became a significant problem for him."

"He didn't appreciate the drugs would stay in his system," Mr Walsh added.

For the September 12 offences, Wilson received a three year driving ban and a 12 month conditional discharge.

He was ordered to pay a £22 surcharge.

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