A LEARNER driver has been banned from the roads after he was caught drug-driving in Hereford.

Joshua Francis Norton admitted drug-driving, driving without insurance, and driving without a licence when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Police were on patrol on Hereford's Three Elms Road at around 12.25am on April 11 when they saw an orange Peugeot and decided to pull it over, prosecutor Ralph Robyns Landricombe said.

Driver Norton admitted only having a provisional licence and not having insurance, and was arrested after failing a roadside drug test. An evidential test in custody revealed he had 14 microgrammes of cannabis metabolite delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol per litre of blood. The legal limit is two.

Philip Cornell, for Norton, said the 30-year-old former welder had gone to work for an agency after splitting with his partner but that work had been erratic and so he had given that job up and currently has no income.

"He thinks he can do better and he has prospects," Mr Cornell said.

"He is going to move on and get work."

Norton, of High Street, Leominster, was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £325. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £34 victim surcharge.