Ban for Norfolk electrician caught drug driving

Subcontractor stopped at Sea Terminal after night out

An electrician from Norfolk has been banned from the road after being caught drug driving on the Isle of Man.

Billy Searby, of Laburnum Crescent in Dereham, was stopped at the Sea Terminal just after 7am on 30 October last year.

The 35-year-old had raised suspicions due to his ‘twitchy and excitable demeanor’ whilst checking-in for his sailing.

He was searched and a drug wipe test was conducted which tested positive for cocaine.

Subsequent tests showed he had more than double the legal limit of the Class A drug in his system and more than five times the legal amount of its main metabolite Benzoylecgonine.

At Douglas Courthouse (10 March) Searby pleaded guilty to two offences of driving whilst over the specified drug limit.

His advocate told the court Searby had been a subcontractor on a major construction project in Douglas which had completed on 29 October.

“The boys, the workers, decided to have a night out. He only has a dim recollection of that night,” he added.

Fining Searby £1300, and ordering him to pay £50 in prosecution costs, Deputy High Bailiff Rachel Braidwood told him: “You must have taken a substantial amount of cocaine.”

Searby was disqualified from driving for five years and until he’s taken, and passed, an extended driving test.