Man stopped in Portadown by PSNI had cannabis and diazepam in his vehicle, Craigavon court hears
Police who stopped a man in Portadown as he had no motor insurance, found Class B and Class D drugs in his vehicle, a court has heard.
Darren William James Martin, aged 29, from Drumaghlis Road, Crossgar, Downpatrick was before Craigavon Magistrates Court.
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He faced three charges including possession of the Class B drug cannabis, possession of the Class C drug diazepam and using a vehicle without insurance.
Martin’s barrister, Mr David McKeown, said his client pleaded guilty to the charges. When asked for his licence Martin’s barrister said his client has no licence and is a disqualified driver.
The court heard police were on patrol on the Northway in Portadown on April 23, 2023 at 11.25pm, when they spotted a silver Astra heading towards the town centre. Checks showed the vehicle had no active insurance policy.
After they stopped the driver, the defendant, they could detect a ‘strong smell of cannabis’ coming from the vehicle. They searched the vehicle and found a zip seal bag with a small amount of cannabis and a blister pack containing six diazepam tablets.
"The defendant said a boy left it in his car without giving any further details,” said a prosecutor, adding Martin had no prescription for the diazepam.
Mr McKeown said his client had insurance but there had been a “payment failure” as “he was struggling at the time”.
He said his client had been trying to be “entrepreneurial driving around doing odd jobs”. “He is not going to be able to do that now,” he said adding the defendant’s driving ban is over in October.
Mr McKeown said his client had drug issues in the past and he realises he is in breach of a suspended sentence.
Deputy District Judge Gerard Trainor pointed out that in June this year Martin “was up in court for the exact same offence – no insurance and drugs”.
"These are offences of 2023 today. I don’t know why it took them so long to come before the court,” he said, adding that Martin had already received fines but “they made no difference to him”.
For the drug offences he was fined £200 on each of the charges and for no insurance he was fined £300 and banned from driving for 12 months.