A MAN has been jailed after being caught drug driving while ferrying his children to school.

Jeremy Stokes was also banned from driving for thee years when he appeared in custody at Wrexham Magistrates
Court.

Stokes, 39, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to three charges of driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and drug-driving.

He also admitted two offences of driving off without paying for fuel,

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson told the court Stokes had been disqualified from driving for two years in March last year.

But on November 8 a police patrol saw him at the wheel of a Volkswagen Golf which pulled out on Llangollen Road near Ruabon.

“There were two young children, aged five and eight, in the rear seats.

Mr Stokes was drenched in sweat and his eyeballs appeared heavy,” outlined the prosecutor. “He confirmed that he was a disqualified driver.

“He said he needed to get his two children to school.”

A breath test proved negative, but after he was arrested, the defendant produced a blood sample which showed a level of cocaine of 52 mcg in one litre of blood; the legal limit is 10.

He also had 31mcg of ecstasy in one litre of blood when the legal limit is 10.

Stokes was also captured on CCTV making off without paying for fuel to the value of £9.40 at the Co-op garage in Coedpoeth on January 2 and on the same day he committed a similar offence at the King Street garage in Mold, taking £12.94 worth of fuel.

The next day he was spotted in Ruabon and arrested for driving while
disqualified.

Cath Jagger, defending, said in mitigation: “He is extremely paranoid and I am concerned he needs to see his GP. He thinks that people are after him.”

But jailing him for 24 weeks, chairman of the magistrates, Brian Manford, told Stokes: “There were children as passengers, but you had the types of drugs that you had in your system and they were a very high reading.”

No court costs were awarded against Stokes, but he was told to pay a £115 victim surcharge.