Appeal to the Crown Court: Cannabis Smoking Truck Driver Keeps Licence.

This driver, represented in the Crown Court by Barrister Harry Bowyer (SBC did not act in the Magistrates’ Court), wanted to appeal his disqualification for Drug Driving. He had given a lift to a friend who had offered him roll up cigarettes on their journey down south. The driver accepted the cigarettes and having smoked a couple began to notice the smell of cannabis in his cab. (The least said about smoking in the workplace the better). The friend assured him that the cigarettes did not have cannabis in them before being dropped off. The police test, conducted when the driver stopped for his break, suggested otherwise.

The driver’s previous lawyers unsuccessfully argued special reasons in the Magistrates’ Court as to why the driver should not be disqualified. The driver came to SBC to argue the appeal in the Crown Court. The driver was able to show through an analysis of his hair (in this case chest hair as the crop on his head was somewhat sparse) that he was not an habitual cannabis user over the period and the Judge and two Magistrates accepted that he had inadvertently consumed the cannabis. The disqualification imposed in the Magistrates’ Court was lifted.