A REGULAR cannabis user has been banned from the roads after a drug-drive stop in Hereford.

Daniel Jason Warner admitted driving while over the drug limit and without a licence or insurance when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Police had been on patrol in an unmarked car in Hereford's Belmont Road at 9.15pm on December 11 when they were made aware of a Ford Mondeo being driven by a person who might be over the limit, prosecutor Ralph Robyns Landricombe said.

Warner was found at The Oval, where checks revealed he had no insurance and held an expired provisional licence, and was arrested after failing a roadside drug test. An evidential blood test revealed he had 9.8 microgrammes of cannabis metabolite delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol per litre of blood. The legal limit is two.

Marilena Di Vitantonio, for Warner, said the 34-year-old had been stopped due to intelligence received by police rather than due to the manner of his driving.

"He tells me he has been a cannabis user for some years, and that is evident from his history," Miss Di Vitantonio said.

"It's known that THC remains in the blood and there is a build-up.

"He tells me he does not smoke in excess as he was before, but he accepts he had been smoking it."

Warner, of Croft Street, Leominster, was disqualified from driving for three years and fined £240. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £34 victim surcharge.