A man who drove while under the influence of cocaine has been fined £1,000 and banned from driving for two years.

Jordan Corkish had previously pleaded not guilty to the offence but on Thursday (February 16), changed his plea to guilty.

The 24-year-old groundworker had previously also pleaded guilty to possessing the class A drug and was fined a further £250 for that offence.

Corkish also pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of benzoylecgonine, which is the main metabolite of cocaine, but no separate penalty was made for that.

Magistrates also ordered him to pay £500 prosecution costs, due to the case reaching the pre-trial review stage after his initial not guilty plea.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that police were on patrol at Victoria Road in Castletown on August 7, at 8.30pm.

They saw Corkish, who lives in Hailwood Avenue in Douglas, driving a Vauxhall Meriva, heading south.

Police turned around to follow him and found the Meriva parked at S and S Motors on Alexandra Road.

Corkish was spoken to and described by officers as having glazed eyes with large pupils.

A search found a wrap of white powder in his jacket and he was subsequently arrested.

Two further wraps were found in the car, which had a female passenger, and Corkish said: ‘Anything else you find in there is mine, not hers.’

A drug wipe test proved positive for cocaine.

Mr Swain said that the drugs found weighed a total of 1.48 grams, valued by police at £148.

At police headquarters, a sample of blood was taken from Corkish, which later produced results of 33 for cocaine, for which the legal limit is 10, and a reading of 800 for benzoylecgonine, which has a legal limit of 50.

After being charged, Corkish said: ‘I wasn’t even in the car, but whatever.’

Defence advocate David Clegg reiterated that the benzoylecgonine was a metabolite of cocaine so his client had not taken two drugs.

Mr Clegg said that guidance in the UK stated that two charges should be laid, with no separate penalty being made on one charge, but for it to be taken into account when sentence is passed.

The advocate also said that a UK guidance note on the drug reading said that because there is no research as to the levels being linked to incapacity, the reading should not be treated as an aggravating factor.

Mr Clegg said: ‘This is a young man who was driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

‘He shouldn’t have had it, he shouldn’t have taken it, and he shouldn’t have been driving on it.’

The advocate pointed out that there had been no report of poor driving.

Magistrates ordered Corkish to pay the fine and costs at a rate of £100 per week.