POLICE who stopped a Range Rover on Barbara Castle Way because of the way it was being driven could immediately smell cannabis.

Blackburn magistrates heard Shada Hasan gave a positive reading for the drug but through his solicitor, Ghafar Khan, claimed he had smoked the drug two days earlier.

Hasan, 32, of Whalley New Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to drug-driving. He was fined £186 with £85 costs and £34 victim surcharge and banned from driving for 12 months.

Jade Coleman, prosecuting, said when officers searched the defendant’s car they found drug paraphernalia.

Mr Khan said his client was self-employed and the mandatory ban would hit him hard.

“He had smoked cannabis a couple of days before being stopped and he didn’t think he would still be over the limit.”