A FORMER headteacher has denied driving a vehicle while unfit through drugs.

Nigel Mountford, 55, had been arrested on December 12 last year after being followed by a marked police car from the car park of Tesco, near Greenstead, in Colchester, the town’s magistrates’ court heard yesterday.

Mountford, who was headteacher at Harwich and Dovercourt High School from 2006 until taking medical retirement last year, failed an impairment test at the side of the road after the incident at 6pm.

The court heard a blood test later found a number of legal drugs in his system.

Mountford, who was recently appointed as a public governor for Colchester for the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, denied the charge at a hearing yesterday.

Helen Walsh, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was driving a vehicle in the car park of Tesco in Greenstead followed by a marked police car.

“He was seen to straddle the white lines a number of times and, on one occasion, caused another vehicle to brake.”

Ms Walsh said Mountford, of Sandpiper Close, Colchester, had also been found travelling above the 30mph speed limit, was stopped and an impairment test was carried out.

He was then arrested.

Ita Farrelly, mitigating, told the court Mountford was contesting the charges as he did not believe he drove in the manner suggested and said the drugs in his system would not have impaired his performance.

He will be now face trial at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on September 16.

Mountford was released on unconditional bail.

Speaking after the hearing Mountford, who revealed at his retirement that he had been suffering from an illness since March 2013, said: “I was medically retired two years ago and I have been taking medication since then.

“I have overwhelming evidence which explains why I could not do the impairment test.”