A FATHER of two who recently lost his job at Laura Ashley has been banned from driving for three years after being caught drug driving in Newtown.

Jermain Spooner, 35, of Lon Eithon, Newtown, admitted that he was more than twice the legal cannabis limit when police stopped him in his car in Pool Road on April 26.

Helen Tench, prosecuting, said that at around 11am Spooner was stopped by PC Andrews.

Owain Jones, defending, said Spooner felt that a driver of a BMW vehicle was “egging him on” near the traffic lights by Greggs bakery, and was later pulled over by a police officer near Morrisons supermarket.

He added that Spooner was “devastated” by the offence, and was feeling ill from the effects of consuming drugs from the night before. There were no aggravating features or unacceptable standards of driving, he said.

Spooner had recently been made redundant. He has since been offered training in Cardiff, and a likely driving ban was “devastating news.”

Chair of the magistrates Susan Usmar gave Spooner credit for his early guilty plea, and disqualified him from driving for three years and ordered him to pay a total of £239 in fines and costs.