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A TRAINEE electrician has lost his job after a van crash in Hereford.

Jackson Macrae, 24, from Breinton was caught drug-driving twice within two days in January, with one of the incidents involving a crash between his van and a lorry.

On one occasion he was found to have been driving with 2.7 microgrammes (mg) of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in his blood. On another, he was caught with 2.5 mg of the same drug, a cannabinoid found in cannabis, as well as 116 mg of ketamine. The legal limits are two and 20 respectively.

Mitigating, defence solicitor Matt Lewis said that Macrae would not be able to continue working as an electrician without a driving licence. 

Macrae, who pleaded guilty to two counts of drug-driving, said: "I am trying to get myself back into work. I am offering to work for next to nothing at the moment."

Macrae is already subject to a community order that was imposed after he was prosecuted for dangerous driving earlier this year. The probation service said that he was "engaging well with substance misuse support and reporting abstinence from drugs".

He was deemed unable to complete unpaid work because of mental health problems and because he is in recovery from cancer.

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At the hearing at Hereford Magistrates' Court earlier this month, the bench said: "We're really encouraged to hear that you've engaged well with probation. Well done for that."

Magistrates banned Macrae from driving for three years, fined him £40 and ordered him to pay a £16 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.

They said it was "rather a shame" that they could not impose further rehabilitation requirements.