Police officers found a needle fully loaded with liquid amphetamine when they visited 63-year-old David Ratchus at his home in Little Beck Road, Bridlington.

The court heard that Ratchus had been a drug user for around forty years and speaking in his defence, Lawrence Watts said: "If you like, he is the 'not' anti-social face of drug using.

"He tells me he has been involved with that culture in one way or another for the greater part of his adult life.

"He tells me he is very careful, he never involves anybody else with it.

"He takes it as part of his own private life.

"He is simply a man who has taken drugs for the best part of forty years," added Mr Watts.

Presiding magistrate Roger Evans handed Ratchus a £65 fine, ordered him to pay £85 in court costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

He also ordered the destruction of the drugs and admitted that the court system 'does not seem well-equipped' to deal with life-long, continual drug users such as Ratchus.