Drug-driver caught twice in eight days

A Weston Hills man has been banned from the roads for two years after being caught drug-driving twice in eight days.

Former self-employed motor vehicle dealer Craig Michael Thornton had a cocaine derivate in his system during both stops by police.

The 33-year-old, of Austendyke Road, appeared before magistrates in King’s Lynn on Thursday and pleaded guilty to two counts of drug-driving.

Prosecutor Stacie Cossey said officers spotted Thornton “travelling at speed” in a black Audi in Gayton Road, Lynn, on May 18. He failed to stop when requested before turning into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital grounds and running off into a nearby housing estate.

He was caught and arrested and later found to have 63 micrograms of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. The specified limit is 50.

Then on May 26 Thornton was seen by police in a Ford Transit in Tennyson Avenue, Lynn. On that occasion he had 205 micrograms of the cocaine derivative per litre of blood.

Mitigating, solicitor Tiffany Meredith said the defendant’s life got in a bit of a mess around the time of the offences as his wife left him and took five of their seven children to live in Newcastle.

Before the first offence he’d never taken cocaine before but was offered some at a party.

Thornton was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £80 for the first offence and banned for two years and fined £120 for the second offence. The bans will run concurrently.

He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and £32 victim surcharge.