An Aberystwyth man who was caught driving while disqualified with a cocktail of drugs in his system has been handed a suspended prison sentence and banned from the road for four years.

Sam James, of 13 Corporation Street, appeared before Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court on 22 May.

The court heard that the 31-year-old was stopped while driving an Audi TT in Trefechan on 12 November last year.

Police checks showed that James was disqualified from driving and was also uninsured.

Laboratory tests showed that James had MDMA, cocaine and benzoylecgonine – the major metabolite of cocaine – in his system exceeding the specified limit.

James pleaded guilty to all the charges, including a separate charge of possession of cannabis at Swansea train station on 1 March this year.

Magistrates disqualified James from driving and handed him a 12 week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

Magistrates said the offences were “so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified” because James “has a flagrant disregard for court orders” and “had more than one drug in his system.”

The prison sentence was suspended, magistrates said, because James had been attending probation appointments and is “motivated to change” following the birth of a child.