A DRUG driver and convicted fraudster who was caught behind the wheel while 16 times the cocaine limit has been banned from the roads for more than a year.

Scott Coyle, sentenced last month for scamming his former employers and an Inverclyde homeowner out of thousands of pounds, has now been disqualified from driving and placed on a tagging order by a sheriff.

Greenock Telegraph: Scott CoyleScott Coyle (Image: Facebook)

The 30-year-old was pulled over by police travelling on East Hamilton Street towards Port Glasgow on the afternoon of December 3, 2022 after officers spotted his silver Ford Focus 'swerving between lanes'.

A sample of saliva provided for a roadside DrugWipe test returned a positive result for cocaine and a blood sample taken that night showed a reading of 792mcg of benzoylecgonine - the main metabolite of cocaine - per litre of blood, well over the 50mcg/litre limit.

The Telegraph previously reported that Coyle used a company card to buy building supplies after he was let go by a construction firm and fraudulently obtained £2,000 worth of merchandise for himself.

READ MORE: Fraudster duped firm out of thousands after being caught 16 TIMES drug drive limit

He then failed to complete a decking job for an unsuspecting customer after taking £1,000 in cash from the woman and ignoring her messages and calls.

A court hearing in February was told that he had been employed by Glasgow-based MP Group Ltd at the beginning of last year before his contract was terminated at the end of January 2023.

While he worked for the firm, he was given access to a company group account to order materials for work purposes - a privilege he flouted after he had left the role.

Between January 31 and February 14 last year, Coyle spent £142 using the company account at Howdens in Greenock and a further £111 at the trade supplier's Paisley branch, whilst he bought items worth £1,100 at the Greenock Jewson shop and almost £750 from the same retailer in Largs.

Coyle also gave a quote of £1,000 to a caravan owner at Wemyss Bay holiday park to carry out a decking project and collected money from the victim in early April last year, with a view to finishing the work by the end of that month.

Several weeks later, after numerous messages from the woman and attempts to call him, Coyle dropped off tools at the site and said he would be back the following morning but never returned.

READ MORE: Man denies smashing up cars and making gun and bomb threats during armed police siege

The court heard that he 'continued to make up excuses as to why he was unable to do the job'.

Defence solicitor Edel McGinty told last month's hearing: "He ended up in a situation where the walls were growing high around him and started to crash down.

"These offences have cost him his reputation, his relationship and possibly his liberty.

"Everything has just turned into a big mess."

Coyle, who now lives in Port Glasgow, was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within 18 months and will also be supervised by criminal justice social workers for the same length of time.

For the drug driving offence, he was placed on a 7pm-7am restriction of liberty order for 16 weeks as a direct alternative to a custodial sentence.