'Arrogant' Portsmouth drug-driver caught rolling a joint at Portsdown Hill fined £500

Joe Golds, 30, was sitting in his uninsured car at the side of Widley Walk, on Portsdown Hill, when his number plate pinged on a passing police car’s camera system.

Officers pulled alongside, smelled cannabis and tested him, finding him to be over the cannabis drug-drive limit.

Golds, of Howard Road, Hilsea, denied drug-driving and using a car uninsured, but pleaded guilty today.

District judge Anthony Callaway said: ‘It’s some arrogance, isn’t it, for you to sit in a car rolling a joint?’

He added: ‘It’s a criminal act. You obviously don’t care about the law.’

Golds must pay a £500 fine, £150 costs and had his licence endorsed. He lost his job as a driver following the incident on November 8, 2019, Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard. He was co-operative at the roadside. He had 4.1 microgrammes of cannabis per litre of blood. The limit is two.

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