‘Against spiritual belief’ to provide blood sample
A DRIVER who refused to give police a blood sample said it was against his spiritual beliefs.
Alexander John was pulled over as he drove along Wakefield Road in Scissett on January 25.
The officers were carrying out routine documentation checks but when they spoke to the 27-year-old they could smell cannabis in his car.
He was arrested and taken to Huddersfield Police Station after a roadside saliva sample gave a positive reading for two types of controlled drugs.
But when he was asked to give a blood sample there he refused to do so, prosecutor Alex Bozman said.
John, of Commercial Road in Skelmanthorpe, pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
His solicitor Daniel Metcalfe said he was co-operative with the initial roadside mouth swab, however, he believed he had a legitimate excuse for declining to give blood at the police station.
He explained to Kirklees magistrates: “Spiritually he doesn’t want to give blood. He’s not religious, it’s just a personal belief he has. He wasn’t deliberately trying to be eva- sive with police and would have perhaps given a different specimen.
“I advised him that I don’t believe it would be accepted as a genuine, lawful excuse for not giving blood, had it gone to trial.”
Magistrates sentenced John to a 12 month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work. He will have to pay £85 court costs and £85 victim surcharge and is banned from driving for 17 months.