‘A case of mistaken identity’: Drug-driver caught after police confused him for a woman

A “case of mistaken identity” led to a drug-driver being caught in the act by police.Michael Taylor, 36, was driving along Wootton Road in Gaywood on November 1 last year when he was pulled over.He admitted to officers that he was an occasional cannabis smoker, and he subsequently failed a roadside drug swipe.

He was arrested and taken into custody, where evidential tests revealed he had slightly more than 10mcg of the drug per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit to drive is 2mcg.Taylor, of Kingcup in Lynn, had committed nine previous drug possession offences, although the most recent was in 2009. After pleading guilty to drug-driving when he appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, he was disqualified from the roads for 12 months.He will also pay a £120 fine, £48 victim surcharge and £55 in court costs.Mitigating, duty solicitor Andrew Cogan made clear that it had been an “extremely long time” since Taylor’s last offences.He said it was not Taylor’s manner of driving that led to police pulling him over, but the length of his hair. “There was no female insured on the car, and his hair was long,” Mr Cogan said.“A case of mistaken identity, if I can put it that way.”The solicitor said Taylor will lose his job as a delivery driver as a result of his disqualification, and will also be unable to take up a new role as an assistant chicken farm manager.