A man was arrested for drug-driving in Harrogate less than two hours after being released from custody in West Yorkshire.

Sean Hopkins, of East View in Dacre Banks, pleaded guilty to drug-driving at Harrogate Magistrates Court yesterday (August 21).

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, told the court the case was a “rather unusual” one.

“In a matter of hours, this man was spoken to by both North Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police for driving over the limit of drugs and alcohol”, she said.

Hopkins was stopped for a defective rear light on Wetherby Road in Harrogate at 2.15am on June 17 this year.

He told police he knew about it "as West Yorkshire Police had told him when arresting him for driving under the influence of alcohol”.

Hopkins, 48, then showed the officers a West Yorkshire Police charge sheet.

The document, which verified the drink-driving charge, was timestamped just after 12.30am that same day – less than two hours before he was in Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Police officers asked him to do a roadside breath test, which recorded 26 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of his breath. This was below the legal limit of 35 micrograms.

However, Hopkins told officers he had smoked cannabis “at tea time” the evening before.

Police could smell cannabis on the defendant and a roadside drug swipe, conducted at 2.33am, was positive for cannabis and cocaine.

Hopkins was arrested again and taken to Harrogate Police Station, where a blood sample recorded 388 micrograms of benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – per litre of blood. The limit is 50 micrograms.

A total of 0.8 micrograms of THC was also recorded in the defendant’s blood, but it did not exceed the legal limit of two micrograms.

West Yorkshire case

Ms Tyrer told the court Hopkins was stopped in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, just after 11pm on June 16.

West Yorkshire Police officers believed Hopkins appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and a roadside breath test verified this.

He told officers he had drunk two drinks before getting behind the wheel, the court heard.

Hopkins gave a reading of 43 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath at the West Yorkshire police station, where he was charged with drink-driving at 12.36am.

Ms Tyrer said Hopkins then got a taxi back to his car in Cleckheaton, where he decided to drive back to Dacre Banks, before being stopped again in Harrogate.

Hopkins was convicted of drink-driving in Cleckheaton on July 31, when he was banned from driving for 13 months and fined.

Defence

Sean Wilson, defending, told the court the case was “somewhat complicated” as one broken light led to Hopkins being stopped by two police forces.

He said Hopkins was working as a delivery driver at the time of the offence, but lost his job after being convicted for the Cleckheaton offence. 

Mr Wilson also said Hopkins took the cocaine before being arrested by West Yorkshire Police, but the force did not carry out a roadside drug swipe at the time.

“Despite the defendant showing North Yorkshire Police officers the charge sheet, he finds himself here today”, Mr Wilson added.

The court heard:

The chair of the magistrates’ bench told Hopkins his case was “fairly complex”.

In the UK, if someone is convicted of driving over a prescribed limit of drugs or alcohol twice in the space of a decade, they can expect to be banned from driving for three years.

However, the chair of the bench said the magistrates “took the view that this was one continuous journey” and instead banned Hopkins from driving for 27 months.

He was also ordered to pay a £120 fine and a £48 surcharge. Prosecution costs were not awarded.