The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Woman fined for drug use in parked car
AFife woman’s illicit cannabis-smoking routine was noticed by police hunting for boy racers in Dunfermline.
Accounts manager Hannah Mills, 32, was caught taking the drug in her car when police stopped to question her.
She told a court she had a routine of driving to a car park by Castle Brae, Dunfermline, to smoke, before walking 10 minutes back to her parents’ home.
The first offender said she did not want to smoke drugs in her parents’ house.
Mills, of Holborn Place, Rosyth, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to admit being in charge of a car when the proportion of cannabis derivative THC in her blood was 9.8 mics, nearly five times the specified limit of two mics.
The offending took place on June 21 last year.
Prosecutor Charlotte Allan told the court it was around 8.30pm when police on routine patrol noticed Mills parked in a car with headlights on and the engine idling.
They noticed a “strong smell” of cannabis and a drug wipe returned a positive result, the fiscal depute said.
Defence lawyer Aime Allan said: “She was consuming cannabis at the time and did not want to do it at her parents’ house and in front of the kids, so her routine was to drive to the area, sit in the car and walk back to her parents’ house a short distance away.
“Ordinarily she would not have the engine idling but she was watching something on her phone and charging her phone at the same time.
“Officers stopped to ask Ms Mills if she had seen any boy racers driving around the car park. At that point they smelled cannabis.”
Ms Allan said her client was a new driver and argued for the imposition of penalty points rather than disqualification.
She said if Mills were to be disqualified, she would probably lose her job and she depends on her licence and income to support her family.
Sheriff Allan Findlay fined Mills £350 and placed 10 penalty points on her licence.