A YOUNG driver was caught drugged up behind the wheel five times in four months – making him one of Dorset’s worst-ever motoring offenders.

Lewis Darby, 24, was arrested on October 17 in Wellington Road, Springbourne, on November 16 in Salisbury Road, Blandford and again on November 21 in Gladstone Road East, Boscombe.

This year, he was caught in Walpole Road, Boscombe on February 6, and again in St Clement's Gardens on February 12.

On the first occasion, he had 55 micrograms of cocaine, 800 micrograms of cocaine’s derivative, benzoylecgonine, and 2.5 micrograms of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, per litre of his blood.

The limits are 10, 50 and two respectively.

The second time Darby was stopped, he had 2.2 micrograms of THC, 16 micrograms of cocaine and 200 micrograms of benzoylecgonine per litre of his blood. The third time, he had more than three-and-a-half times the limit for benzoylecgonine, while the fourth, he had 200 micrograms of benzoylecgonine in blood, and the fifth, he was over the limit for THC.

Darby, who lives in St Clements Gardens, Bournemouth, admitted seven counts of drug driving. He appeared at Poole Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where he was sentenced to a community order, under which he must carry out 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He was also banned from the roads for four years and ordered to pay a cost and surcharge.