A MAN who was stopped by police while driving erratically was also found to be banned from driving and with cocaine in his system.

Jonathan Gilbert, 37, of The Dell, Stourport on Severn, appeared before magistrates in Worcester on February 21 charged with driving while over the legal drug limit, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

The court heard how just after midday on December 8 last year, officers noticed a car on the A449 in Ombersley going faster than the surrounding traffic.

Gilbert was stopped and a drug test was carried out which showed 285 Micrograms of Benzoylecgonine in his blood, exceeding the legal limit.

The court heard that the cocaine had entered Gilbert’s system the night before and that the car he was driving was his partner’s and had been taken without her knowledge.

Ian Parsons, defending, said: “Mr Gilbert is a family man and since his last offences in 2010 he has a partner and a job which keeps him out of trouble.

"He accepts that the car was not his and was in fact his partner's which he should not have taken anyway, even without being disqualified.

“On the day the offence took place he was transporting some bedding and he accepts he should not have been driving.

"He knows he made a mistake and is trying to change his ways."

Gilbert has 12 previous convictions from 27 offences dating back to 2009.

Magistrates banned Gilbert from driving for 36 months in addition to carrying out 100 hours unpaid work and paying £220 in fines for the offences.