A POWYS man has been banned from driving for three years after he admitted getting behind the wheel with drugs in his system for the second time in 10 years.

Dexter Langford, who now lives in Shrewsbury but previously lived in Berriew, admitted driving with cannabis in his system in Newtown last August when he appeared at Welshpool Magistrates’ Court last week.

Langford, 27, had 3 micrograms of cannabis in his blood – the legal limit is 2 micrograms. He was previously banned for an identical offence in 2017; a repeat offence within a 10-year period automatically attracts a 3-year ban.

The hearing, last Tuesday, January 31, was told Langford, now of Little Halscott Lane, Shrewsbury, was stopped on Pool Road, Newtown, on August 24 last year, driving a Ford Transit.

“It was 10.30pm when police stopped a Ford vehicle driving between Newtown and Garthmyl, they stopped it in Newtown on Pool Road,” said Mrs Tench.

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“The defendant was driving, he had a jaundiced look. He said he had been at a festival all weekend and had smoked cannabis there. A drug wipe was positive and he was arrested. He has one previous conviction and received a ban in 2017.”

Rob Hanratty, acting for Langford, said: “The previous offence was one of communal smoking when he’d only had a few puffs on a reefer.

“He has sporadic earnings and won’t be earning anything until the middle of the year, he uses what he can scrape together to go to festivals.”

Magistrates fined Langford £120 fine and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £48 surcharge; this was in addition to the 3-year disqualification.

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