A DRUG driver who beat children with a belt had knuckle dusters in his car when stopped by police near Kidderminster.

Laiten Hanson, who already has two convictions for child cruelty, was stopped by police behind the wheel of a Honda Civic on the A449 between Kidderminster and Cookley.

The court heard how officers stopped the 41-year-old at 4.35am on August 5 last year.

Darron Whitehead, prosecuting, said: “Officers could smell what they believed to be cannabis inside and suspected this defendant had been smoking cannabis while driving.”

A test revealed 6.7 microgrammes of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol), just under 3.5 times the limit of two microgrammes per litre.

THC is a metabolite or breakdown product of cannabis.

Mr Whitehead added: “They removed from this vehicle a shoulder bag that was draped over the passenger seat.

"Inside that was a black plastic knuckle duster.”

In interview he said he found it about eight weeks before and forgot about it.

He added: "He did not plead guilty to the offensive weapon. He was convicted by the court below (the magistrates court). He was suggesting he did not know what it was.”

The conviction put him in breach of a 16 month suspended sentence for two matters of child cruelty which involved children being 'chastised with a belt'.

The sentence was imposed on October 12, 2015.

Robert Morgan-Jones, defending, said there were no guidelines as yet for drug driving and that equating the level of impairment with the equivalent for drink driving would be ‘a false correlation’.

He said: “It’s not necessarily indicative of any impairment.”

Mr Morgan-Jones said the weapon was not used to threaten or cause fear.

Hanson had trodden on the knuckle duster at a party and ‘had not really thought much about what it was’.

“He had put it in his bag and left it there. It was the same bag police found it in some eight weeks later. It is rather different to deliberately arming himself” Mr Morgan-Jones told the court.

Hanson was described as a musician which he hoped would one day become his job but was not yet bringing in any money, depending instead on employment support allowance.

His honour Judge Robert Juckes QC said: "The knuckle duster was found at the time of the driving offence.

"That was something you found but retained, knowing full well what it was."

He handed him a community order for 12 months which will include 80 hours of unpaid work in the community.

The sentence will include 10 days of rehabilitation activities.

He said he chose not to activate the suspended sentence because these offences were 'wholly different' to those for which that original sentence was imposed.

Hanson of Jeffcock Road, Wolverhampton must pay £200 towards costs which he will pay at £20 per month.

The victim surcharge will also have to be paid and he was banned from driving for 12 months.