A local health and fitness businessman has been banned from the roads after police stopped him in the afternoon driving his Mercedes after smoking cannabis.
Bromley Magistrates Court
Hassan El Barbary, 40, is the boss of The London Fit Club, based in Yeoman Street, Deptford and specialising in health, fitness and well-being.
He was stopped at 5.30pm, hours after smoking cannabis that morning and was over double the legal limit.
El Barbary, of Buckhurst Way, Buckhurst Hill, Essex pleaded guilty to driving his black 1.6 litre Mercedes in Creek Road, Deptford on October 1, last year with excess cannabis in his blood.
The legal limit is two micrograms and his reading was at least five.
Prosecutor Subhanur Chowdhury told Bromley Magistrates Court last month police were on an emergency call with their lights flashing and sirens blaring when the defendant pulled out in front of them.
The officers were forced to stop and tested El Barbary for drugs.
The court was told he has drug-related convictions and convictions for eleven previous offences.
El Barbary said via his lawyer he honestly believed he was in a “fit and proper” condition to drive and was overtaking another vehicle and did not see the police car.
The father-of-two said his business, which offers health and therapy services to locals, suffered “catastrophic losses” of £120,000 during the covid pandemic.
He found his personal stress was “overwhelming” due to recent family bereavements and in a “moment of weakness” smoked the cannabis joint.
There was even recent evidence El Barbary had suffered a mild heart attack, the court heard.
His last criminal offence was eighteen years ago and El Barbary now works with Greenwich Council feeding children and rehabing emergency workers.
He admitted his arrest, prosecution and court appearance caused him “great embarrassment” and was not the behaviour he wanted to set as an example to others.
El Barbary was diqualified from driving for twelve months and fined £365, with £85 costs and ordered to pay a £37 victim surcharge.
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