PTSD is no excuse for selling drugs, judge tells soldier

A JUDGE has warned former soldiers not to use post-traumatic stress disorder as a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ as he jailed an Afghanistan veteran caught driving while high on cocaine at 140mph.

James Gosling, 27, was eight times the drug-drive limit when police caught his Mercedes racing for nine miles along the M6 near Lancaster. When the car was searched, cocaine worth £4,000 and £5,200 in cash was found.

Gosling, from Liverpool, blamed the PTSD he said was caused by the ‘harrowing’ experience of serving in the Afghan war, Preston Crown Court heard.

But jailing him for three and a half years, Judge Simon Newell said: ‘An awful lot of men and women who have PTSD and have seen horrible things don’t resort to drug dealing.’

Gosling was caught on June 12 last year after he sped past a police car. He was banned from driving for five years after admitting dangerous driving, possession of cocaine with intent to supply and driving while unfit through drugs.