A MAN stopped by police after driving through the Mersey Tunnel at 6am was found to have cocaine in his system.

Blackburn magistrates heard Peter Charles Pountley was originally stopped because the van he was driving had no registered keeper.

Pountley, 56, of Market Street, Whitworth, pleaded guilty to driving while over the limit for cocaine and failing to comply with a suspended prison sentence order. He was made subject to a curfew between 7pm and 7am for two weeks, fined £80 with £85 costs and £95 victim surcharge. He was banned from driving for 12 months.

Jonathan Taylor, defending, said his client had not used cocaine on the day he was stopped and wasn't feeling the effects of the drugs he had previously taken.

He said his client accepted he had lost contact with the probation service who had been supervising him under the suspended sentence order.

"A good friend was dying and he moved in with him to be with him," said Mr Taylor.

"That friend has since died and my client hoped to comfort him towards the end of his life."