A LANDSCAPE gardener who skidded on an icy road and crashed through a garden wall was four times the drug-drive limit after taking cocaine and cannabis, an Isle of Wight court was told.

Todd Eldridge admitted two counts of drug-driving, on the main Newport Road, near the junction of Redhill Lane, Godshill, on January 21.

Police attended a road traffic accident involving two cars — one of them Eldridge's —which bizarrely crashed through the same garden wall independently, on an icy road, said Ann Smout, prosecuting, at the Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court.

The two accidents were not connected.

In a roadside drug test, the 25-year-old, of Mountfield Road, Wroxall, tested positive for cocaine, was arrested and admitted he also smoked cannabis most evenings as well, to help him sleep.

Eldridge gave the police a blood sample at Newport Police Station. 

The results revealed he had 200 microgrammes of cocaine derivative BZE — the legal limit being 50. He also had 3.2 microgrammes of cannabis derivative THC, with the limit being 2.0.

For Eldridge, Oscar Vincent said his client had taken the drugs four days before the accident and said he felt fine to drive.

Mr Vincent said Eldridge co-operated fully with officers and volunteered information to them about the cannabis.

Eldridge was banned from driving for 16 months and made subject to a year's probation, with an order to do 50 hours' unpaid work and pay £85 costs and a £95 victim surcharge.