A FOURTEEN month ban has been handed down to a Carlisle motorist who admitted driving with traces of cocaine in his body.

James Routledge, 21, admitted the offence at the city’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard that the defendant, of Pennine Way, Harraby, Carlisle, was driving an Audi A1 on the M6 northbound on September 29 last year when he was stopped by police.

A test confirmed that he had the cocaine breakdown product benzoylecgonine in his system at a concentration of 126mcg per litre of blood.

This was just over twice the legal limit.

Magistrates fined him £210, with £85, and a £32 victim surcharge.

* According to some experts, the cocaine breakdown product benzoylecgonine – the substance most commonly tested for by UK laboratories - can remain detectable in your system for up to six days, though some tests can detect it weeks after the drug was taken.