A drug driver who crashed the family car on the way back from a day trip to the seaside had driven to Oxford for his appeal – because of the rail strike. 

Amur Hassan’s barrister raised the issue after the judge and two magistrates threw out his appeal against his conviction for driving under the influence of cannabis.  

The brief told Oxford Crown Court on Friday (February 3): “Mr Hassan drove to court today because of the train strike. There was no other way of getting here.

"He’s parked not too far away in a two to three hour short stay.” 

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The 35-year-old dad, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, had been banned from driving when he was sentenced at the magistrates’ court, but that disqualification was temporarily lifted by Judge Michael Gledhill KC last year pending his appeal being heard. 

Judge Gledhill said the ban would run until February 3 – the date of the appeal at the St Aldates courthouse. 

Recorder John Ryder KC was asked whether Hassan would be able to drive home.

Cutting the Gordian knot, he said: “Judge Gledhill would have said ‘until determination of the appeal’, he chose not to. He said the third, which means until the end of the third.”  

He said the bench would not feel he was driving whilst disqualified as long as he was home and out of his car by midnight. 

“That thorny difficulty has been negotiated, but these details are very important,” he added. 

Hassan was found guilty at the magistrates' court last year of driving under the influence of cannabis. He received a 16 week suspended prison sentence and was banned from driving for 18 months. He appealed both his conviction and sentence to the crown court.

On Friday, the crown court heard police attended a crash on the B430 near Weston on the Green on July 19, 2021. The driver of the Toyota Verso, Hassan, had crashed, injuring both himself and family members.  

A police constable performed a drugs wipe test and, after asking when he had last smoked cannabis, was told ‘yesterday’.  

Giving evidence at his appeal, Hassan said he had smoked a cannabis spliff after the crash rather than before it – and so was not under the influence of the class B drug at the time of the accident. 

He claimed to have told the officer of this at the roadside, although she told the court on Friday that she had no recollection of this and had made no note of the comment at the time. 

Footage from the officer’s bodyworn camera showed the roadside saliva test being performed.

Asked to wet his mouth, Hassan seemed to reach down to some wet grass then wipe around his mouth.  

“At the time, as you can imagine, I weren’t in the right state of mind,” he told the court.  

Prosecuting, Matthew Knight asked: “Is it because you’re not in the right state of mind you start to wipe the grass around your mouth or is it because you like the taste of grass?” 

Hassan, who had earlier said he smoked cannabis to relieve mental health problems, said he could not tell from the video what he was doing.  

Dismissing the appeal, Recorder Ryder said: “Taking the evidence as a whole, we are not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that he did smoke cannabis after the accident.”