A DRUG driver has been banned from getting behind the wheel for a year after cocaine breakdown was found in his blood.

Police officers stopped Matthew Jelfs on Evesham High Street on the morning of February 4.

Peter Love, prosecuting, said officers smelt the drugs from the Peugeot 206 Jelfs he was driving, asking him to take a roadside test, which he failed.

At Worcester Police Station he gave a blood sample which later revealed he had 741 ug/l of Benzoylecgonine, the main compound of cocaine, when the limit is 50 ug/l.

Belinda Ariss, defending, explained that the Littleworth Street resident had been suffering at the time of the incident, following the break down of his relationship, and moving out of his family home which included his two young children.

Miss Ariss said the 32-year-old had made the foolish mistake of taking cocaine with friends, and his inevitable disqualification would impact on his life, forcing him to cycle to work, and no longer able to take his young children to school.

She also asked for credit to be given for his early guilty plea.

After short discussions between magistrates, chairman of the bench Simon Egerton told Jelfs that they were disqualifying him from driving for a year.

Jelfs was fined £266 and ordered to pay costs of £135, and a victim surcharge of £30 - a total of £431, which he pay at a rate of £50 a month.