Man sentenced for drug-driving – Oxfordshire

Following an investigation by Thames Valley Police, a man has been sentenced for drug-driving in Oxfordshire.

Thomas Desborough, aged 23, of Middleton Road, Bucknell, pleaded guilty to three counts of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit, namely cocaine, cannabis and ketamine, at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday (16/11).

At the same hearing, Desborough was sentenced to rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also disqualified from driving for four years and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £114 surcharge.

On 14 May at around 3pm, a Roads Policing officer was on an emergency response to an unrelated incident when she came across a van, which had hit an electric pylon and was sparking and burning the tarmac on the road in Kirtlington.

Desborough was stood by the van and had no recollection of what had happened. He was subjected to a roadside drug wipe and tested positive so the officer arrested him.

Desborough was charged on 1 November.

Investigating officer PC Amy Boughton, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: “Desborough was found to have been driving with three separate controlled substances in his system.

“Driving while over prescribed limits of any substance presents a real danger to other road users, and is one of the fatal four.

“I am pleased that the courts have reflected the severity of this incident and have disqualified him from driving so he will be off the roads for the next four years.”

AP