A traffic management boss has lost his own driving privileges after being caught with a cocktail of drugs in his system near Mintlaw.
Kenneth Reilly was picked up by police on Ballring Road in August last year with both cocaine and more than five times the legal limit of benzoylecgonine – a chemical compound that is produced by cocaine – in his system.
Constables also found a small amount of cannabis within his white Ford Transit van.
Cannabis smells
The 50-year-old, who has no previous convictions, was described as being in “good employment” by his defence solicitor, Stuart Flowerdew, during the hearing at Peterhead Sheriff Court.
His drug use was discovered, fiscal depute Lydia Williams said, when police officers “noticed a smell of cannabis coming from the accused”.
She said his two containers of cannabis weighed 1.4g and had a street value of around £10.
His blood readings would later return positives for cocaine, of which he had 15mg per litre of blood in his system, and benzoylecgonine.
He had more than five times the legal limit of the latter within his system, with a reading of 357mg per litre of blood recorded. The limit is just 50mg.
‘Mr Reilly is taking this extremely seriously’
Of his client, Mr Flowerdew said he was required to travel to road work sites across the country.
He added: “Mr Reilly is taking this extremely seriously.
“There doesn’t appear to be any background problems. [It’s] a piece of stupidity he’s going to be regretting for a considerable period of time.”
In addition to his year-long driving ban, Sheriff Robert McDonald ordered Reilly, of Budhill Avenue, Glasgow, to pay a fine of £278.