A former teacher who was ruined by false allegations says cocaine has “saved his life.”

Philip Grundy was caught by police driving while under the influence of the drug.

He admitted the offence, which took place on January 11 this year on Kensington Drive, Horwich, at Bolton Magistrates Court.

But Adam Whittaker, defending, revealed the extraordinary sequence of events which had led Grundy to take the drug.

He said: “He is retired.

“He was a teacher, he had a business.

“Very serious allegations were made against him.

“He was investigated by the police.

“Then the case against him was discontinued.

“It was a false allegation.

“His mental health deteriorated.

“‘To quote Mr Grundy ‘cocaine saved his life.’

“Without it he would not be here.

“He accepts daily use.

“He is quite ashamed to be before the court.”

He added: “It is a very high reading.

“It is just under 16 times the legal limit.”

The court heard that on the day of the offence police were on patrol in the early hours of the morning and gauged that his car was going too fast.

When pulled over he got out and officers thought he was jittery and so a drug test was carried out.

Moryan Begum, prosecuting, said: “When testing the reading showed 792 (micrograms per litre of blood.)

“The legal limit is 50.”

Chair of the bench Gillian Knowles decided she needed a pre-sentence report in order to be able to sentence the 67-year-old but warned him about drug use.

She said: “We have decided that in order to arrive at the correct sentence for you we are going to get a report.

“If you are taking cocaine on a daily basis you are committing a crime every day and you will never ever be in a fit state to legally drive so you need to think about that.”

Grundy, from Julia Mews, Horwich, will be sentenced at Wigan Magistrates Court in October.

He was also banned from the roads ahead of his sentence.