A self-employed dog walker is set to lose his business after being caught driving after smoking a joint.
Michael Sinclair was stopped by police in Portlethen who detected a smell of cannabis coming from him.
The 38-year-old failed a roadside drugs test and confessed to having recently smoked a joint.
The offence, which comes with an automatic driving ban, is now set to see Sinclair’s business go up in smoke.
Fiscal depute Stephanie Cardow told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened around 9.40pm on May 21 last year.
Police were dealing with an unrelated collision on Thistle Drive when they spotted Sinclair’s BMW X5 and signalled it to stop.
‘Since this, he has stopped using cannabis altogether’
When he did and officers approached, they noticed a strong smell of cannabis.
Mrs Cardow said: “The accused advised he’d smoked a joint a short time prior.”
He was taken back to the station where the formal procedures were carried out.
Sinclair, of Pentland Crescent, Aberdeen, pled guilty to driving with 3.2 microgrammes of a cannabis metabolite per litre of blood. The legal limit is 2 microgrammes.
Defence agent Neil McRobert said his client, a father of two, ran his own dog walking business.
He added: “That will now come to an end as a result of the disqualification.”
Mr McRobert said Sinclair had smoked cannabis since the age of 15 but highlighted that the reading on this occasion was low.
He went on: “Effectively, the law is that if you’re using drugs of any sort you just can’t drive at all.
“What these limits actually mean, who knows? But that is the message being sent out – that you just can’t drive at all.
“Since this, he has stopped using cannabis altogether.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnston fined Sinclair £565 and banned him from driving for a year.
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