Delivery driver had cannabis in his car

ROUTINE SEARCH BY EMPLOYERS FOUND STASH, WHICH HE DENIED DEALING

A DELIVERY driver was caught with £200 of cannabis when his employers searched his car.

Derby Crown Court heard how it was Yodel’s policy to carry out searches on employees – and that was how Aasit Popat was snared.

Popat, 39, of Stenson Fields, who has four similar previous convictions, was initially charged with dealing the class B drug.

But that was dropped when the prosecution admitted it would be difficult to prove the cannabis was not for his personal use.

And the hearing was told how, after the drugs were discovered, he lost his job at the Alfreton depot in Venture Crescent, on the Nix’s Hill Industrial Estate, in Somercotes.

Handing him a 12-month conditional discharge, Recorder Jason McAdam said: “Mr Popat, you have been using cannabis for a long time and you know the perilous position you put yourself in if you keep doing so.

“Others might come to a different conclusion – but the prosecution cannot be sure you were peddling this stuff to sell at your workplace, which is why you are only being sentenced for simple possession.

“I take it you have lost your job because of this?”

Popat replied: “Yes.” Recorder McAdam said: “Well, if you keep on using cannabis you have to deal with these stresses.”

Sarah Allen, prosecuting, said the offence took place on December 18, last year.

She said: “The defendant was working at Yodel in Alfreton and they have a policy of searching their employees.

“He admitted to them he had some cannabis in his car and inside it was a Pyrex container with 5.89g of the drug in it.

“Under a wheel in a bag was a grinder along with some more cannabis. The total amount was 20.4g with a value of around £200.

“He admitted he used cannabis and also found were some chopped up cigarettes and Rizla papers.”

Popat, of Outram Way, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis, but charges of possession with intent to supply the class B drug were dropped.

He has four previous convictions for possession of drugs.

When Recorder McAdam told his barrister, Claire Moran, that he would not be sending her client to prison, she said she had nothing further to offer in mitigation.

As well as the conditional discharge, he ordered Popat to pay £100 towards the prosecution’s costs.