Portadown man had five different drugs including cocaine in his system when stopped riding a Honda motorbike in Lurgan, Craigavon court hears
A 22-year-old man had five different types of drugs, including cocaine, in his system when he was caught driving a motorbike in a built-up area of Lurgan, a court has heard.
Callum Lucas, aged 22, from Ballyoran Park, Portadown appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drink/drugs and possession of the Class C drug pregabalin.
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Police spotted a Honda motorcycle on Union Street, Lurgan on April 21 this year heading towards the town centre. It then make a U-turn onto Hill Street with police observing the vehicle swerving across the centre of the road in a residential area. It then turned suddenly onto Edward Street without appearing to slow down.
They noticed the speech of Lucas, the rider, was slurred and his eyes were glazed plus he was unsteady on his feet and a drug wipe test was carried out.
Lucas had 39 pregabalin tablets on him. The drug wipe showed he had cocaine in his system. After his arrest, blood was taken and it was found to contain cocaine, benzylamine, pregabalin along with traces of THC and diazepam.
Lucas’ lawyer said his client has had “some issues” with drugs in the past but said he is seeking to “significantly” reduce that. He said Lucas has a two-year-old child and is seeking contact via the family courts.
"He has a motivating factor in relation to addressing his lifestyle,” the lawyer said.
“He is taking steps to better himself, get his life on track and be a father and a partner,” he said, adding his client has no licence and has lost his provisional licence.
He said this incident happened on a Monday and Lucas had been using drugs on the weekend.
“He believes there may have been some drugs still in his system. However he knows he shouldn’t have been driving,” said the solicitor.
“If you want to have any hope of having contact with your child then your offending and your drug taking needs to stop now otherwise a family court is going to simply say ‘No’,” said District Judge Michael Ranaghan.
He banned Lucas from driving for 12 months and fined him £100 plus £15 offender levy for the driving while unfit. He was fined £300 for drug possession because “there was quite a lot of pregabalin”.