A drug-driving dad caught driving with a young child in the car was being a “good Samaritan”, a court has heard.
Stuart Hunt, 39, was more than double the legal driving limit for cannabis after consuming the Class B drug the night before officers stopped him on the A96 near Inverurie.
Police were looking out for the Buckie man’s blue Ford Focus after receiving reports that it might be helpful in their search for a missing person.
However, when they pulled Hunt over, at around 6.10pm on September 26 last year, they didn’t find their missing person but rather a small child and the smell of cannabis, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
“On stopping they noted the accused sitting in the driver seat and a four-year-old child in the passenger seat,” fiscal depute David Rogers said.
“Police spoke with the accused with regards to the missing person whereby they noted a smell of cannabis.
“Due to the missing person inquiry, roadside tests were initially not carried out.”
One officer drove Hunt’s car while another took him to Inverurie police station where a drug test returned a reading of 5.3mcg of cannabis per litre of blood, the legal limit being two.
He admitted to driving while unfit through drugs.
He was ‘playing a Good Samaritan’
Defence agent Tony Burgess said Hunt had been responding to concerns for his friend, the missing person, and was in effect being a “good Samaritan” at the time.
“This is a situation of the morning after the night before,” the solicitor said. “He accepts this use of cannabis for self-medicating for mental health issues.
“This obviously spilled over to how he was still under the influence the following day.
“He tells me if it was immediately after he would never have gone to the assistance of the friend, who I’m told is the person who was reported missing.”
“What started as him playing a good Samaritan on his part wound up with him getting a criminal conviction.”
Sheriff Robert McDonald told Hunt: “This is the second conviction for driving in this way in a very short period of time. I have to reflect that with where I go with this.”
He handed Hunt, of Braeview Road, Buckie, a one-year supervision order, a four-month curfew and a four-year roads ban.
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