A SUSPECTED drug driver who was stopped in Carlisle by police refused to give a blood sample for analysis because he had provided one two months earlier.

Simon Judge, 49, had given the officers a roadside saliva sample that produced a positive indication that he had used the class B drug, but he could not understand why a new blood sample was needed, magistrates heard.

The defendant, formerly of Hayton, near Brampton, pleaded guilty at Carlisle’s Rickergate court to failing to provide a specimen for analysis without a valid reason.

Prosecutor Peter Kelly said the defendant was stopped in his Toyota Hilux car at 6pm on May 23 in Carlisle because of concerns about the car’s insurance.

“The officers caught up with the vehicle,” said Mr Kelly. “Mr Judge was the driver and the officers noticed that his speech was slightly slurred, and his eyes were glazed.

"That was the degree of intoxication the officers observed.”

After the positive indication for cannabis from a roadside saliva test, Judge was taken to Carlisle’s Durranhill Police HQ and asked for a sample of blood.

He told the officers he had already provided a blood sample – a reference to an occasion two months earlier when he had provided a sample.

He was unwilling to provide a further blood sample, and seemed unable to understand that the police needed to know what level of cannabis may have been in his system at the time when he was stopped.

“There was no good reason not to provide a sample of blood,” added Mr Kelly.

John Smith, defending, said Judge appeared to genuinely believe that his having provided a  blood sample on a different occasion two months earlier meant it was unnecessary to provide a further sample when the police stopped him.

“When I explained the reason why the needed a new sample, to confirm the level of drug in his system on that day, he said he had already given them one.

"He could not see why they wanted one on that day. He genuinely didn’t see why, on this day, the police wanted a new blood sample.”

Magistrates said that they regarded the defendant’s actions that day amounted to a “deliberate refusal” to cooperate with the police procedure.

However, they adjourned sentencing the defendant until July 2 so that a background Probation report can be prepared.

This will consider the option of a sentence that includes a primary mental health treatment requirement. In the meantime, the defendant, who now lives at Stockwell Road, Carlisle, was given an interim driving ban.