Cocaine-trace driver given fine and ban

Amotorist caught with a metabolised form of cocaine in his system was told the effect would have been the same as if he had been drinking.

Philip Baillie had three times the legal limit of benzoylecgonine in his system.

He was stopped by police on routine patrol in Dunfermline and officers noticed a strange smell coming from his BMW.

Tests revealed he had 159 microgrammes of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit is 50.

Benzoylecgonine is formed after the body processes cocaine and can remain in the body for days after the ingestion of the class A drug.

Principal Fiscal Isma Mukhtar told Dunfermline Sheriff Court: “At 3.50pm officers were in uniformed patrol in a marked vehicle when they saw the vehicle being driven by the accused.

“At the time they stopped the vehicle they smelled a strange smell and the accused was requested to provide a specimen of saliva.

“That was positive for a substance and as a consequence a sample of blood was taken from him.”

The 25-year-old’s solicitor said: “At the time of the incident he had got involved with the wrong crowd and began experimenting with illicit substances, including cocaine.

“He was of the view that he was not impaired in any way. He accepts he was over the limit of what is to all intents and purposes cocaine.

“The friends are no longer his friends and his focus is now on his family and gaining employment. He very much regrets this and wants to put it behind him.”

Baillie, of Echlin Gardens, South Queensferry, admitted driving with an excess of the drug in his system on Linburn Road on January 31 last year.

Sheriff Charles MacNair said: “You were driving with a significant amount of a metabolite of cocaine in your blood stream, which is as dangerous as if you were driving with three times the limit of alcohol.”

He disqualified Baillie from driving for 12 months and fined him £450, in addition to a victim surcharge.

In the same court a second, unrelated motorist was also charged with having an illegal amount of benzoylecgonine in his system.

Sean Nairn pleaded guilty via his lawyer to driving while four times the limit.

The 44-year-old, of Station Road, Crook of Devon, drove his vehicle on Foote Street, Lochgelly, on December 9, 2019, with 200 microgrammes of benzoylecgonine in his system.

Sheriff MacNair disqualified him on an interim basis and ordered that he appear before the court at a later date to face sentence.