A 55-year-old man caught driving whilst on cocaine was stopped when a Police National Computer system alerted officers to the vehicle’s lack of tax.
Nicholas Cottis, 55, of Ashey Park in Ryde, pleaded guilty to 4 charges brought against him at the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court earlier this week (Tuesday).
Cottis admitted 2 charges of driving with a proportion of a specified controlled drug over the specified limit, 1 charge of driving a vehicle without insurance, and a fourth charge of possession of cannabis.
Jason Spelman, prosecuting, told the court how at 04:45 hours on 25th November 2025, Police were patrolling the area of Beapers Shute, Ryde when their PNC was alerted that the vehicle had no active road tax. It was then that officers began to follow the car and noticed the vehicle swerving and generally driving erratically.
Due to the unusual driving behaviour, officers asked the defendant to provide a roadside drug test, to which Cottis told officers he had used the controlled drug, namely cocaine, the previous day and had a small amount of cannabis in the vehicle.
Cottis completed the roadside test and was subsequently taken to Newport Police station, where levels of no less than 500 micrograms of Benzoylecgonine (the broken down product of cocaine) were found per litre of blood. Cottis was also found to be in receipt of levels no less than 50 micrograms of cocaine, 5x higher than the legal limit of 10 microgrammes.
Defending Cottis, Oscar Vincent explained to magistrates that there was no suggestion or evidence of bad driving and the officers find was the result of a routine stop. Alongside this, it was Mr Vincent’s view that the vehicle had not been correctly decontaminated, leading to officers finding cannabis.
The court heard how there was a lack of need for an interview and Police officers even went as far as to give the defendant a life home afterwards.
Mr Vincent made the magistrates aware of the ‘extremely stressful’ events leading up to the offences, which include his client being the primary carer for his severely disabled son, mother-in-law and partner, with Mr Vincent ensuring the court that his client has not used drugs since.
Magistrates gave Cottis a 12-month driving disqualification alongside a £421 fine.
Why are there ‘limits’ for drugs? They are illegal so should be ZERO!
Have you never had a headache and taken Co-codamal?
1 more Numpty off our roads, well done.
55 years of age, should know better.
Well done catching this person, bet there are many more
out there.
The police in Dorset have the right idea.
I read on the beeb that they carried out an operation at
Poole ferry terminal and Bournemouth airport to check
when persons return to the UK they are not under the influence.
Makes one wonder how many people drive off of Island Ferries
under the influence, many persons drink alcohol on the Ferries!
Well done Dorset, every little helps.
Saw that on the local news. They stopped 97 vehicles, breathalysed ‘around 30’ and found none over the limit. So, how many people people did they inconvenience in these stops to arrest no one, assuming that all the vehicles stopped were not single occupancy? Doesn’t sound like a great success to me, perhaps they should try targetting elsewhere next time.
Drugged up scum endangering everyone else, jail the bastards
“the defendant a life home”
Where are they putting him up, can anyone go there?
It would be nice if the relevant people checked his story he is not the primary carer of his child his mother is, he barely sees him and provides very little and generally only see him once every two weeks or so.Some times only when his mother foots the bill to get him to the island. As to his addiction to drugs if this had been known, he would not be seeing his son.