A couple followed a drugged-up driver for nine miles because they were so concerned that he would hurt somebody.
The pair of Good Samaritans relayed Alex Foy’s whereabouts to police as he sped through a red light, narrowly missed street furniture and a wall and clipped so many kerbs “they lost count.”
They tailed the Audi A3 from Salendine Nook to Liversedge, Kirklees magistrates were told.
When police arrived they found the 27-year-old still at the wheel, drifting in and out of sleep.
He had a cocktail of cocaine, ecstasy and diazepam in his system which would have greatly impaired his driving.
Foy admitted possession of cocaine but was found guilty after a trial of driving whilst under the influence of drugs.
The Huddersfield court heard that the incident started at 1.20am on January 14.
Driver Anthony Sampson and his partner were driving from Huddersfield towards Leeds and had reached New Hey Road near to junction 23 of the M62.
Their attention was drawn to Foy’s vehicle coming off the roundabout at around 60mph which they felt was too fast.
Prosecutor Andy Wills said: “The driver’s side wheels were rubbing against the kerb.
“The driver was very erratic and kept banging against the kerb and they followed him onto Lindley Moor Road.
“There he was weaving from side to side and narrowly missed a traffic island in the middle of the road.”
Foy’s car continued to mount the kerb and the couple kept following him because “they were concerned that he was a danger to himself and other members of the public.”
Mr Wills added: “They decided to call police and Mr Sampson’s partner called them as they continued towards Brighouse Road, then giving a running commentary throughout.”
As the couple followed behind Foy’s car they gave police details of their exact route into the centre of Brighouse.
There Foy drove straight through a red traffic light before pulling up for 10 minutes, “looking down at the floor and fiddling about” before setting off again.
He nearly crashed into a wall and the couple “lost count of how many times he hit a kerb”, Mr Wills said.
The Audi headed onto a country lane just outside Brighouse, driving onto the wrong side of the road and finally coming to a stop at Fall Lane in the village of Hartshead, Liversedge.
Police arrived shortly before 1.40am and found Foy slumped asleep inside the car with his engine still running.
They woke him and he appeared incoherent and agitated, magistrates were told.
The officers found a bag of cocaine inside his jeans pocket and he was arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive through drugs.
He was taken to Halifax Police Station where he kept behaving strangely and falling asleep.
A blood test showed that he had taken a combination of drugs.
They included 72 micrograms of MDMA or ecstasy per litre of blood – more than seven times the limit of 10.
Foy also had eight micrograms of cocaine per litre of blood and 110 micrograms of diazepam, the legal limits being eight and 550 micrograms respectively.
Mr Wills explained: “The use of cocaine can produce effects of self-confidence, loss of inhibition, hyperactivity and paranoia.
“In driving this can cause high risk behaviour while MDMA can cause increased energy.
“Diazepam can also impair driving ability, particularly in reaction time and control.”
Foy, of Beckford Court in Tyldersley, Greater Manchester, said that he’d been on his way to see a girl, taken the wrong turn and kept going wrong.
He said that he’d used cocaine “recreationally” since he was a teenager but told magistrates: “I believe that I was unfit to drive through fatigue.”
Magistrates sentenced him to a community order with 250 hours of unpaid work.
He was banned from driving for 28 months and will have to pay £300 court costs and £60 victim surcharge.
