A DRUGS driver caught for the second time in five years has been banned from driving for 36 months.

Richard Dewhurst, 30, a self-employed joiner from Silsden, was stopped by police on December 9 in Station Road, Cross Hills, because the MOT on his Ford Transit had expired.

Asked if he had been smoking cannabis, he admitted he had, and a roadside test proved positive.

He was taken to the police station for a blood test and was found to have 2.1 microgrammes of cannabis by-product delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in one litre of blood, the legal limit is two.

Dewhurst, who admitted driving while over the specified drug limit, was previously convicted in 2014 for driving while unfit through drugs when he received a year's ban.

The court heard in mitigation that Dewhurst would not be able to work without his licence and that it would impact on all his family. He had been fully co-operative with the police and had admitted straight away smoking cannabis.

Dewhurst, of Howden Road, in addition to the three-year driving ban, was fined £276 and ordered to pay a surcharge of £30 and costs of £85.