A 19-year-old drug-driver who travelled towards police on the wrong side of the road before speeding off for a McDonald’s has been handed a 16-month disqualification.
Two officers were in an unmarked car on Carlisle’s Scotland Road at 8pm on August 5.
They saw a blue Ford Fiesta on the opposite side of the road. “It overtook two vehicles, heading directly towards them, they describe at high speed, before cutting back on to the right side of the road,” prosecutor George Shelley told the city’s magistrates’ court.
Driver Matthew Oliver was recognised by one officer. Police turned their vehicle around and tried to catch up but they were unable to due to the Fiesta’s speed.
Oliver was located in the queue at a nearby McDonald’s drive-thru and was stopped on the way out. He tested positive for cocaine, which was found in a blood samole he provided.
A young man with no previous convictions, he admitted drug-driving and careless driving in court today.
“I was driving irresponsibly,” Oliver told the district judge, John Temperley.
“I wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time. I was going through a bit of a rough patch with cocaine. I’ve tried to turn it around now. I will take a drug test if that’s an option. I’ve been off it for a while.”
Oliver, of Punton Road, Carlisle, said he worked part-time and was also attending college in the hope of securing a plastering apprenticeship. He was fined a total of £200 in addition to the driving disqualification.
“I hope we’re not going to see you back here again,” District Judge Temperley told him.
