A SHIFT worker was caught drug-driving after smoking cannabis before going to bed.

Bartolomiej Wolski admitted the offence when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford on February 10.

Police had pulled Wolski over in Hereford's Westfaling Street at 3.30pm on October 2, prosecutor Robert Skinner said.

He was taken into custody after officers noticed a smell of cannabis, and an evidential blood test revealed he had 3.1 microgrammes of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol per litre of blood. The legal limit is two.

Chris Read, for Wolski, said the 27-year-old had been working shifts at the time.

"He tells me he had smoked some cannabis before going to sleep," Mr Read said.

"He then got up in the middle of the afternoon and decided to go to the shop to buy food, but he was stopped by police on the way. He did not feel impaired, and it was some nine hours after he had smoked the drug. He did not realise is would stay in his system, but unfortunately it is a trap that many fall into."

The court heard Wolski had managed to get a new job within walking distance of his home at the Avara factory in anticipation of a driving ban.

Wolski, of Barklie Mead, Hereford, was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £200. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £34 victim surcharge.