An 81-year-old man has been disqualified from driving after being found behind the wheel with more than three times the legal limit of cocaine in his system. Arthur Ball was stopped by police just after midnight on June 2 in Warrington, following his own birthday party.
Ball's car, a Motability Toyota Yaris, had a police marker indicating it might be used by a drug dealer. However, Ball denied any drug use, claiming a guest must have slipped cocaine into his lemonade during the celebration. His roadside breath test was zero, but a blood test revealed 162 micrograms of benzoylecgonine (BZE) per litre of blood—the legal limit is 50 micrograms.
At Warrington Magistrates' Court, Ball pleaded guilty to drug driving. He was fined £120, banned from driving for a year, and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £48 surcharge. His lawyer, Mark Lever, stated in mitigation that Ball does not use cocaine and believed his drink was contaminated, but accepted the offence due to lack of evidence.
Lever added that Ball's driving was not impaired and he was not driving erratically. Figures from 2023 suggest drug driving has become more common than drink driving, with an average of 80 drug drivers caught daily.
