A MOTORIST stopped by police on the M6 near Carlisle because he was going too fast was supposed to be in the middle of a three year ban.

Kesser Ahmed, 22, was also found to be under the influence of cannabis. Carlisle's magistrates' court heard how the defendant was spotted on the motorway at 11.30pm on Sunday, June 28.

"Police officers who were on patrol on the M6 noticed the defendant's vehicle because it was being driven at what they deemed to be excessive speed," said prosecutor Rachel Dixon at the city's Rickergate court.

"The defendant was driving at the time. Checks showed he'd been disqualified by Bradford Magistrates on December 9, 2019; and that disqualification did not expire until December 8, 2022."

As a consequence, the defendant was also driving with no valid insurance.

The officers dealing with Ahmed also noticed that there was a smell of cannabis emanating from his car.

Challenged about this, he handed over a small quantity of the class B drug. A blood test later confirmed that the defendant was slightly over the legal limit for a cannabis breakdown product.

Miss Dixon continued: "He said that he knew he was banned until 2022 and he knew he was in the wrong for driving."

The defendant said the reason he had driven that day was that he had no money.

The court was then told about the defendant's criminal history. It included a conviction for dangerous driving in 2015; and two previous driving while disqualified offences - one in February last year and one in December.

At the time of the latest offence, Ahmed was still subject to the community order he was given for that earlier offence.

The defendant pleaded guilty to four offences: disqualified driving, uninsured driving, possessing cannabis, and drug driving.

The court heard that the latest offences had crossed the custody threshold, aggravated as it was by Ahmed's previous offending.

But the defendant's lawyer Tariq Khan told the court there had been "positive changes" in the defendant's life.

Magistrates adjourned sentence in the case and ordered background reports. The defendant, of Thornbury Avenue, Bradford, may now be sentenced by his local court.