A man has been banned from the road after deciding to give a friend a lift while under the influence of cannabis.
Ben Nicoll was pulled over by police officers on the A96 near the P&J Live arena during the evening of May 7 last year.
Officers detected a smell of cannabis and, despite a negative search, Nicoll, 32, failed a drug test and was arrested.
‘Behaviour is very much out of character for’ Ben Nicoll
Fiscal depute Lydia Ross told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened around 9.45pm.
She said: “Police were on patrol and stopped the vehicle.
“The accused was found to be the driver and officers immediately smelled cannabis.
“They carried out a search of the vehicle but no cannabis was recovered.
“The accused was required to carry out a drug test which had a positive result.”
Nicoll, of Rutherford Folds, Inverurie, pled guilty to driving with 2.9 microgrammes of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabis metabolite, per litre of blood.
‘Enormous impact not just on you but potentially on other road users’
The legal limit is 2 microgrammes.
Defence agent Sam Milligan said his client appeared with no previous convictions and had had an unblemished licence for 14 years until this incident.
He said: “It’s not, in any sense, stretching matters to suggest this behaviour is very much out of character for him.
“This was very much recreational use on a day he was not working.
“The intention was that he would not be driving at all that evening, but he was contacted by a friend who impressed upon him to come to Aberdeen to pick him up.”
Sheriff Margaret Hodge told Nicoll: “I accept this seems to have been out of character.
“You will appreciate now that driving with substances in your system has an enormous impact not just on you but potentially on other road users.”
She banned Nicoll from driving for a year and fined him £420.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
