A recently introduced drug driving law has seen a Great Sutton woman disqualified from the roads for 15 months.

Samantha Howman, of Sutton Way, pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit at Chester Magistrates Court on Thursday (October 28).

The 28-year-old told magistrates that she had given up drugs following her arrest on the night of August 18.

The court heard that Howman was driving her Ford Fiesta on the A5117 when she was stopped by a police officer who believed she had taken a roundabout too fast.

Drug test failure

She was found to have 3.9 micrograms of THC, a component of cannabis, per litre of her blood – the legal limit in England is 2 micrograms per litre.

Howman admitted she had smoked cannabis in the morning, but was unaware that it would remain in her system for so long.

Presiding magistrate Ian Irving said: “Taking drugs is a very stupid thing to do and there is a zero tolerance to drug-driving.”

Howman was ordered to pay a fine of £120, £85 in court costs, a £150 criminal court charge and a £20 victim surcharge.