A man caught driving at double the legal limit for cannabis has claimed he “inadvertently” ingested the drug through a bar of chocolate.
Craig Wallace insisted he is not a regular cannabis user and only had it in his system after eating confectionery the night before he was stopped by police in Inverurie.
Sheriff Donald Ferguson branded his excuse “inconceivable”.
Wallace, 46, was pulled over at around 7.15pm on May 27 last year as he drove his blue BMW along Harlaw Road just 15 minutes after they’d come across him “appearing intoxicated” while carrying out door-to-door checks in Port Elphinstone.
Clocked looking intoxicated at home
Fiscal depute Sean Ambrose said: “At that time it was apparent to the officers that he was under the influence.
“They left the address and he remained within. As they drove away they saw him leave the front door of his communal front entrance and unlock the blue BMW in the car park.”
Officers didn’t immediately follow him but traced the vehicle shortly after on Harlaw Road with Wallace behind the wheel and a passenger beside him.
Wallace admitted driving with 5.3microgrammes of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabis metabolite, per litre of blood.
The legal limit is two microgrammes.
‘It was ingested by eating it’
Defence agent Chris Maitland said his client took issue with officers describing him as under the influence during their first meeting.
“He is not a regular user of cannabis,” he told the court. “It was not ingested by smoking it was ingested by eating it. He had inadvertently the night before had a packet of chocolate containing cannabis.
“He thought he was fit to drive.”
Sheriff Donald Ferguson told the solicitor: “It is inconceivable there would be cannabis in chocolate. It would be very dangerous if that were the case.”
He handed Wallace, of Granary Court, Port Elphinstone, a 15-month roads ban and a £420 fine.
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