A MOURNER caught drug driving in a “powerful” SUV just months after getting a suspended prison sentence for breaking a student’s jaw has been jailed.

Charlie Williams, 25, was six times the limit for cocaine while in a silver Range Rover Sport when he was stopped in Newport the day after a friend’s funeral.

He was pulled over by police officers after failing to stop in Stow Park Circle at 3.20am on August 15, 2021, prosecutor Andrew Kendall said.

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Learner driver Williams also had cannabis in his system and admitted two counts of drug driving, driving without insurance and driving without a licence.

Last March, Williams was jailed for 10 months, suspended for 18 months, after he admitted grievous bodily harm outside The Courtyard nightclub in Newport.

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His latest offending put him in breach of that sentence.

Mr Kendall told Cardiff Crown Court the defendant, of Dickens Drive, Newport, also had a previous conviction for drink driving.

Jenny Yeo, representing Williams, said: “It’s no excuse, but it is an explanation, the previous day, he had been to a funeral of a close friend, someone the same age as him who was killed in a motorbike accident that he had known for 20 years.

“And he said on that day he knows he made some bad decisions.

“He started off by drinking to deal with the trauma and then without drink he would not have taken drugs but that did lead him to taking drugs.

“And he hadn’t actually taken any on the day he was arrested.

“It was the following day but he clearly still had those in his body and he knows he’s fully responsible for that.”

Mrs Yeo added: “Since this offending, he has given up drinking.

“He’s actually lost another close friend and his father and he felt himself getting into a dark place and he’s sought the help of his GP who referred him to counselling.

“The defendant said he didn’t want to bury his head in the sand and wants to lead a law-abiding life moving forward.”

The judge, Recorder John Philpotts, told Williams: “You were observed by the police driving a powerful sports vehicle, a Range Rover Sport.

“It’s a feature of this case that you tried to evade detention, not in a sustained way, you’re not charged with anything from that, but that’s what you tried to do but you then stopped as you were required.

“Drug swipes were administered to you which led to blood tests which revealed that you had taken cannabis and cocaine.

“You were one-and-a-half times the legal limit for cannabis and, by my calculation, about six times the legal limit for benzoylecgonine which is a metabolite of cocaine.

“I’m afraid your position is made extremely serious by the fact that on March 31 of last year, you had been made the subject of a suspended sentence for an offence of wounding.”

The defendant was jailed for six months and banned from driving for three years and three months.

He was ordered to pay a victim surcharge following his release from prison.