A YOUNG driver caught with cannabis in his car pleaded guilty to possessing the drug but claimed it didn’t belong to him.

Jake Mangle, 21, of Burnside Road, Darlington, told the town’s magistrates’ court on Tuesday that he wasn’t a regular cannabis user and that the drug could have belonged to any one of his many passengers.

The cannabis was found in a packet by the car’s gearstick by police who stopped Mangle’s car on December 27.

Magistrates gave Mangle a six-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £85 court costs and £15 victim surcharge.

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