An Audi driver got out of his car at a petrol station, stumbled and told members of the public that he had taken ketamine.

Asked by the Oxford magistrates why he’d confessed to taking the drug, Jack Benham said: “I knew I was not safe to drive.”

Earlier, the court heard how the 25-year-old pulled up at the Ayres Yard petrol station, in Wallingford’s Station Road, in his Audi A3 on September 8 last year.

He was unsteady on his feet, telling other drivers at the garage that he had taken ketamine.

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When his blood was tested by a police scientist, it was found he was more than 11 times over the limit for ketamine and six times the limit for benzoylecgonine, a substance sometimes used to bulk out other drugs.

Benham, of Hurst Road, Twyford, had pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of drug driving, but returned to the magistrates’ court this week to change his pleas to guilty.

Speaking in his own defence, Benham said he had been struggling with anxiety and depression when the incident happened and he was ‘not thinking the most clearly at the time’.

He was fined £460, ordered to pay £446 in costs and surcharge and disqualified from driving.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward