AN uninsured motorist caught drug driving said he had snorted the horse tranquilliser ketamine while left alone in a police car after his arrest.

Kyle Walker, 30, of Alice Crescent in Chepstow, was stopped behind the wheel of his Vauxhall Zafira in Burnt Barn Road last June and admitted to police he had used cannabis "relatively recently".

Walker was arrested and put in a police car, where he sat alone for a while as police searched his car, where they uncovered a small amount of ketamine.

Blood tests later confirmed Walker was above the legal driving limit for Class B ketamine and Class A cocaine.

Newport magistrates heard he had orginally pleaded not guilty to drug-driving, claiming he had consumed the ketamine while sitting in the police car and hadn't taken cocaine for "a number of days".

But he later admitted drug driving while five times over the legal limit for ketamine and 25 per cent over the cocaine limit.

Walker also admitted possession of 0.8g of ketamine and driving without insurance.

Oliver Jenkins, defending, said: "He tells me he hadn't consumed cocaine for a number of days and it seems consistent with the levels found in his blood

"He tells me he didn't feel impaired when he drove. That was a miscalculation by him.

"He has fallen foul of drug-driving laws, as thousands have done, by not realising how long drugs can stay in your system.

"These offences occurred last summer at a time when his life was rather chaotic, he was misusing drugs and there were issues in his domestic life causing that. He is now clean of drugs and has turned his life around."

Walker was banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £990 in fines, costs and a victim surcharge.