A monmouth man, who was stopped by police while he was driving in Ross-on-Wye, pleaded not guilty to drug driving at Hereford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, April 27th.

Steven Michael James Hill (29) of Gold Wyre Lane, Monmouth, had been stopped by police on Three Crosses Road on February 26th, 2017.

The Court was told by the Clerk that Mr Hill did not have a defence lawyer because he had been abusive to the duty solicitor, who was therefore unable to represent him.

Mr Hill had been charged with several offences. The first, he was found to have excess Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis) in his blood. The legal limit is 2µg, and Mr Hill was found to have 2.5µg.

The second charge was for possession of cannabis, and the third was for driving without a licence.

Hill pleaded guilty to the possession of cannabis. He told the court that he was unsure what to plead for the charge of driving without a licence.

Hill said that he has a provisional licence, and he was being supervised by his friend, who had told him that he had been driving for three years, but this was not the case.

Hill said he had trusted his friend, because he was a “close mate,” but he accepted that the responsibility was his, as he had not checked for himself. The clerk told Hill that the court could not offer him any legal advice. Hill pleaded guilty to the third charge. He also pleaded guilty to driving without insurance.

However, he pleaded not guilty to the first charge of driving with excess Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in his blood. He said that in the past, he was a heavy cannabis user, but he had not been smoking at the time of the incident.

The clerk advised Hill that it was his understanding that cannabis may remain in a user’s blood for up to 28 days, but Hill maintained that he was not under the influence of the drug when he was driving the car.

Hill said he would have his blood sample analysed by his own specialist, before a pre-trial review in front of a district judge in six weeks’ time.