The Daily Mail
A cocaine-fuelled police officer was nearly three times the drink-drive limit when he crashed his VW Golf into a garden, a court has heard.
Trainee PC Joel Lee, 27, had been on a night out with friends when he made the ‘stupid decision’ to drive one of them home.
Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how Lee, who had only joined Merseyside Police three months earlier, was driving his VW Golf on Queens Drive, Liverpool, in November 2023 when he lost control.
Suzanna Ludlow, prosecuting, said the officer was driving at around 7am when his vehicle ‘collided with a metal barrier and through a garden wall’.
He was given a roadside breath test which showed he had 80 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit being 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres
Ms Ludlow said an ‘aggravating feature’ of the case was the drugs in his system.
Lee had turned to drink and cocaine after the break-up of a five-year relationship caused by his ‘cheating’ fiancee, the court heard.
‘The defendant describes that he had some problem with excess drinking and there was recreational use of cocaine,’ said Mr Hogan, defending.
‘This appears to extend from the break-up of a relationship.
