A drug driver has had his sentence changed from community service to a probation order.

Ross Jordan McCulloch, aged 35, had previously been ordered to do 80 hours’ unpaid work for driving under the influence of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.

Prosecuting advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge told the court that the defendant had been stopped by officers from the Isle of Man Constabulary while he was driving an Audi A3 on New Castletown Road in Douglas, February 6, in 2023.

A drug wipe test conducted by officers at the scene proved positive for cocaine.

At police headquarters, a sample of his blood was taken which was sent to the UK for analysis, and later produced a result of 192 for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, which has a legal limit of 50.

McCulloch, who lives at Kissack Road in Castletown, was also found to have no insurance on the vehicle.

The court heard that he has only completed nine hours of the 80 imposed.

However, defence advocate John Wright said that two things had contributed to this.

He said that shortly after McCulloch had been sentenced, one of the community service mini buses had crashed and was off the road for a long time, so the organisers were down to one bus, and this had restricted the number of community service hours that could be worked.

Mr Wright said that community service organisers were also short-staffed, and as a result community service hours had not been worked as quickly as expected.

The advocate said that this had also meant that work could only be offered on Sundays, which McCulloch had been unable to do, due to family commitments.

Mr Wright asked magistrates to revoke the community service order.

Magistrates agreed and replaced it with a 12 month probation order.