A 22-year-old man from Widnes has been disqualified from driving after he was caught behind the wheel of his vehicle on cannabis, and with a knuckle duster in his glove box.

Jake Gerrard, of Cunningham Road, was seen by officers driving ‘quickly’, who then stopped the vehicle on Edendale Road on October 13.

Upon approaching the vehicle, the officers immediately smelt cannabis from inside the vehicle, and detained Gerrard under the misuse of drugs act.

A search was carried out by the police officers, who found a knuckle duster in the glove box of Gerrard’s car.

A roadside drugs test was also carried out, which returned positive results for THC, a cannabinoid found in cannabis.

The 22-year-old, who appeared at Warrington Magistrates Court on Tuesday, also provided a sample for analysis while in custody, which showed that he had 5.1 micrograms of the drug in his blood, exceeding the specified limit.

“Mr Gerrard has admitted the offence,” said Mr Dunn, defending Gerrard.

“He had no knowledge of how long [the knuckle duster] had been in the car for and had never used it.”

The court heard that the glove box of Gerrard’s car had ‘quite a lot of belongings’ inside it as the defendant and his father ‘used to go fishing’.

Gerrard was disqualified from driving for 12 months, given a 12-month community order with 20 rehabilitation activity days and was fined £120.

The forfeiture and destruction of the knuckle duster was also approved by the magistrates.