A MAN who claimed he was pressured into travelling to work on his day off was caught drug driving, a court heard.

Terry Holliday, 30, of Halton Lane, Ludlow pleaded guilty to two counts of drug driving at Hereford Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Lesley Ashton, prosecuting, said that the incident happened at Clehonger on June 9, at 1.30pm, when a police officer saw Holliday driving his silver Mercedes Sprinter while using his mobile phone.

"As a result of that the officer decided to speak to him and smelt cannabis coming from the car," said Mrs Ashton.

"Holliday made the remark that he smoked cannabis every night."

Holliday gave a test reading of 355ug/L per 100ml of blood of Benzoylecgonine (BZE), a metabolism of cocaine, the legal limit is 50.

He also gave a reading of 3.2ug/L per 100ml of blood of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (the active compound found in cannabis), the legal limit is two.

George Cousins, mitigating, said that Holliday was a recreational drug user and was not intending to drive that day after booking the day off work.

"He was called into work by his employer who put pressure on him to go to work," said Mr Cousins.

"His employer rang Holliday whilst he was driving which he answered and he was given a fixed penalty by police for that. He was also drug tested. The irony is as a result of this conviction he is not employed by that firm any longer, his relationship has broken down and he has had to move house."

Magistrates disqualified Holliday from driving for 14 months.

He was also ordered to pay a £120 fine, £135 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.