Newport drug driver was 15 times cocaine limit in Caldicot
He was sweating and slurring his words when he was pulled over when at the wheel of a Ford Focus car at around 2am in the morning on Saturday, July 20 last year.
The defendant was also just over the legal limit for driving with cannabis in his blood.
These offences put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed just two months earlier for assaulting an emergency worker, criminal damage and possession of cannabis.
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Fuller was jailed for 12 weeks, suspended for 12 months, and made the subject of a six-month drug rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
Speaking about the offences committed in July 2024, Jac Brown, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court: 'There were obvious signs of impairment due to the defendant driving on the wrong side of the road.'
Fuller, formerly of Waltwood Park Drive, Llanmartin admitted driving with a cocaine derivative and a cannabis derivatine in his blood.
He had 10 previous convictions for 20 offences including a relevant one for drug driving for which he was banned from driving for 14 months in April 2021.
The defendant's barrister Elin Morgan said: 'He had taken cocaine on the day in question before he went to sleep.
'A friend asked him for a lift and he thought he was OK to drive, but he wasn't.
'He clearly wasn't – not even close to it.'
Miss Morgan added that her client had responded well to the attachments of his suspended prison sentence and completed them.
Fuller was currently homeless, the court was told, and is on the waiting list for council accommodation.
He is also working part-time as a landscaper.
Judge Celia Hughes told him: 'You were 15 times the legal limit for driving with cocaine – it's odd to think there is a legal limit for driving with cocaine but there is one nonetheless.
'The officer said you were sweating and slurring your speech.
'You could easily have caused a serious accident and not only injured yourself but others.'
The judge decided not to sent him straight to prison.
She said to him: 'You are in a different place from when you committed these offences.'
Fuller was jailed for 16 weeks with the sentence suspended for 12 months.
The defendant was banned from driving for four years and ordered to pay a victim surcharge and £150 costs.
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