A PART-TIME Carlisle window cleaner has pleaded guilty to driving after using the class A drug cocaine.

Axel Read, 20, who was also driving illegally because he has no full licence and was not being supervised and had no insurance, committed the offences on December 30 last year, the city’s Rickergate court heard.

Prosecutor George Shelley said police spotted the defendant at the wheel of a Ford Focus on Eastern Way at 3.45pm.

When the car was pulled over, officers confirmed that the defendant had no valid insurance and that he was also a provisional licence holder, though he was displaying no L-plates.

Noticing that Read’s pupils were unusually dilated, the officers conducted a roadside drugs swipe test, which produced a positive result for cocaine. A later blood-test confirmed the defendant had just over three times the limit of cocaine in his system.

John Smith, defending, said Read earned £120 per week from his window cleaning but paid some to his mother for his keep.

District Judge John Temperley fined Read £120 for the drug driving offence and the same amount for the uninsured driving, which the defendant, of Cant Crescent, Upperby, also admitted.

Read’s licence was endorsed for the third offence he admitted – driving in a way not in accordance with that licence. The defendant must pay £85 costs and a £34 victim surcharge.