Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
22
Mar
Man who drove in ‘erratic manner’ in Harrogate admits drug-driving
A man who was seen to be driving erratically along a main Harrogate road has admitted to being under the influence of drugs at the time.
James Herrington, 36, pleaded guilty to one offence of drug-driving at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Thursday (March 19).
Prosecutor Alison Whiteley told the court police saw a car driving in an “erratic manner” along Skipton Road at around 3.30pm on December 18 last year.
Officers followed the car and eventually saw the driver – Herrington – get out of the vehicle and go into a house.
After noticing police, Herrington told the officers he would “come back out” of the house shortly.
When he did, the court heard, he gave police his driving licence, but officers noticed he seemed “agitated” and smelled of cannabis.
Ms Whiteley said when the officers asked Herrington to co-operate with roadside tests, he ran away.
The defendant returned at 4pm and gave a positive roadside drug swipe, after which he was arrested.
A blood sample taken in custody at 6.10pm later recorded 5.8 micrograms of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per litre of Herrington’s blood.
The legal limit is two micrograms.
Defendant smoked cannabis three days prior, court hears
Sean Wilson, defending, told the court Herrington had last smoked cannabis three days before the offence, but admits he “uses it regularly”.
Mr Wilson said Herrington, who gave the court an address of Dene Park in Harrogate, had been delivering medication to a relative at the time.
He added the defendant is himself disabled due to a leg injury, for which he has undergone nine separate surgeries.
The court heard:
Mr Herrington could not balance on his leg when police were doing the roadside test. That would lead police to think he was more impaired... but he accepts he had smoked cannabis three days before.
However, Mr Wilson said Herrington disputes he was driving poorly at the time as the volume of traffic on the road was high, and it would have been "stop-start traffic".
He added:
He believes he was stopped as the car is known to police.
The court also heard the Crown Prosecution Service was not aware the defendant is registered disabled.
Mr Wilson said: “He failed an impairment test when he can’t actually stand on his leg properly”.
The chair of the magistrates' bench told Herrington: "The manner of driving is why the police stopped you, and you ran away before the test. That casts a bit of a shadow over your inability to perform that test".
The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
Herrington will return to Harrogate Magistrates Court on May 21 for sentence.
He was released on unconditional bail and banned from driving in the interim.
0