A HOMELESS Audi driver has been jailed and banned from driving after he was caught drug-driving in Herefordshire almost five years ago.

Alin Nicolae Ene pleaded guilty to one count of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit.

Ene is of no fixed address and was driving an Audi on the A449 between Ledbury and Malvern when he was caught on December 1, 2019.

North Essex Magistrates’ Court heard that the 31-year-old had 107 micrograms (mg) of benzoylecgonine per 100 millilitres of blood. The limit is 50.

At the time of the offence, he was handed a suspended sentence, but he has since re-offended, meaning that the sentence has been activated and Ene has been sent to prison.

The court said the drug-driving offence was “so serious only a custodial sentence can be justified” with magistrates noting that “the defendant had a very high reading of drugs in his system”.

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On September 13, Ene was sentenced to one month in prison for the offence, concurrent with sentences for crimes he committed elsewhere in the UK.

These offences were possession of a knife blade or sharp pointed article in a public place and failing to comply with the community requirements of a suspended sentence.

He has also been disqualified from driving for 16 months.

He was not ordered to pay any costs due to his limited means.