A PRESTONPANS teenager has been banned from the road for more than three-and-a-half years after he committed three driving offences in quick succession, including driving on a footpath and crashing into a fence.
Rhys Walsh was caught driving a vehicle with quantities of cocaine in his system on two occasions in May last year.
Walsh was found to have 114mg of the Class A drug per litre of blood on McNeill Avenue in Loanhead, Midlothian, on May 2 – more than 11 times the legal limit of 10mg.
He was then stopped for a second time by police officers 12 days later on May 14 and was found to have 52mg of cocaine per litre of blood on Peffermill Road in Edinburgh, more than five times the limit.
READ MORE: Prestonpans teenager 11 times over drug-driving limit
The 19-year-old then got behind the wheel and drove dangerously in an incident the following month.
On that occasion, Walsh, of Northfield Gardens, drove at excessive speeds, failed to observe a give way sign, failed to reduce his speed and mounted a footpath.
The teenager then drove on the footpath and collided with a metal fence, all on Dalum Grove and Gaynor Avenue, Loanhead, on June 28 last year.
Walsh pleaded guilty to all three offences when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in August and sentence was deferred for reports to last week.
Sheriff Julius Komorowski was told that Walsh had to swerve to avoid colliding with another vehicle and had been travelling at speeds of up to 60mph in the residential area.
Walsh was handed driving bans of 12 months and 36 months for the two drug-driving offences and told he must pay a total fine of £516.
He was also given a further 43-month road ban for the dangerous driving offence and ordered to sit the extended driving test before he is allowed back behind the wheel.
All the driving bans will run concurrently, meaning he is banned for a total of 43 months.
Sheriff Komorowski also imposed a restriction of liberty order whereby Walsh will be electronically tagged and have to stay within his home address between 7pm and 7am every night for the next year.
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