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Man on drugs couldn't remember crashing car




Thatcham man had taken a potentially deadly mix of cocaine, ketamine and diazepam

A THATCHAM man was so high on a potentially lethal cocktail of drugs that he couldn’t remember crashing his car into a fence.

Newbury magistrates heard how 28-year-old Ricki Nel, of Rotary Way, had attended a party earlier in the night and taken a mix of cocaine, ketamine and the Class C drug diazepam before his vehicle rolled down a hill.

Jennifer Riddell, prosecuting, said police were called to reports of a single vehicle collision on September 26 last year.

When they arrived, the court heard, they found a Vauxhall Corsa that had left the road – with Mr Nel inside.

The court heard how ambulance crews had to remove Mr Nel from the vehicle.

They became concerned that Mr Nel appeared to be drunk as he was “unable to stand unaided” and thought they overhead him mentioning that he had taken cocaine.

He passed the roadside breath test – but a blood sample taken at the scene revealed he had three times the legal limit of cocaine in his system.

It also showed he had taken diazepam and ketamine.

Ms Riddell said Mr Nel had told police he had been asleep and only became aware of the collision when he woke up.

She added; “He couldn’t explain how the car ended up in the fence.”

Charles Maidstone, defending, said: “This is a bit of an unusual one.

“He attends a party, and somehow gets into his car which is parked outside the house.

“He does not quite know how that happened.

“He has asked his friends about it and they are non-committal.

“He cannot recall getting into the car and assumes they put him into it.

“He is confident they would not have released the handbrake, but the car rolled down the slope and crashed into the fence.

“He’s confident no-one else released the handbrake so he must have been the one who did it and therefore was in effect driving the car.”

Mr Nel admitted driving while unfit through drugs in Ashford Drive on September 26, 2015.

Magistrates ordered pre-sentence reports to be written on an all-options basis, which included the possibility of custody.

He was handed an interim driving ban and released on unconditional bail to be sentenced on February 18.



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