A woman who was in charge of a vehicle with cocaine in her system has been fined £1,500 and banned from driving for six months.

Kelly Elaine Thompson appeared before magistrates recently and was also ordered to retake her test at the end of the ban.

Prosecuting advocate Peter Connick told the court that police were on patrol on October 26 last year, at around 1am, when they saw a vehicle parked at Back Marina Road in Douglas, with its lights on.

It was described as being parked unusually, and as officers approached it 48-year-old Thompson, got out from the driver’s seat.

She was subjected to a drug wipe test which showed a positive result for cocaine.

After being arrested, a blood sample was taken and sent to the UK for analysis.

This later produced results of 46 for cocaine, which has a legal limit of 10, and 480 for benzoylecgonine, which is a metabolite of cocaine and has a limit of 50.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers said that it was accepted that the readings were high, but referring to English sentencing guidelines, he said that the offences should be treated as one drug essentially, as one was a metabolite of the other.

Mr Rodgers said that the case should therefore not be treated as multiple drugs, where that would be an aggravating factor.

The advocate said that Thompson, who lives at Demesne Road in Douglas, was exiting the vehicle when police arrived and had not intended to return to it.

He went on to ask magistrates to spare his client from a ban, saying it was not mandatory for being in charge of offences.

Magistrates ordered Thompson to pay the fine, as well as £125 prosecution costs, at a rate of £10 per week, deducted from benefits.