A DRUGGED-UP erratic driver caused two crashes in as many days.

Burnley magistrates heard how father-of-four Usman Ali, 39, had got hooked on heroin after his wife was diagnosed with throat cancer and he was finding it difficult coping with her illness and treatment, work and looking after the children.

The hearing was told how pizza delivery driver Ali had five drugs in his system when he ran into the back of a vehicle on Hibson Road, Nelson, on February 19.

On February 21, he smashed into another car on Netherfield Road, Nelson, and may also have collided with some railings.

The defendant kept his freedom, despite being slammed as a danger to the public.

Ali, of Beaufort Street, Nelson, admitted two counts of driving while unfit through drugs.

He was given eight weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, with a year-long drugs progr-amme and 12 months supervision. The defen-dant was banned from driving for 30 months and must pay an £80 victim surcharge and £85 costs.

The bench told him: “This was extremely dangerous driving dur0ing the daytime.”

David Hartley, prosecuting, said Ali collided with another car at a roundabout.

Police attended and found the defendant slurring his words, very drowsy and unsteady on his feet.

He was cautioned, arrested and taken to the police station, where blood tests proved he had about five drugs in his blood, including morphine and diaze-pam. Drugs were also found in his system after the second crash.

The prosecutor said Ali, who had no convictions at the time, was a ‘danger to the public, who was not capable of looking after the car’.

Jasmine Basnyet, for Ali, said before February he had never been in trouble.