Tamworth man allegedly caught five times the legal limit in Kent Street in Operation Fume police blitz

Police will allege the 27-year-old man had never held a driver's licence when they pulled him over in Kent Street on Saturday about 9am.

Highway Patrol Inspector Kelly Wixx told the Leader highway officers were patrolling the Kent Street area and stopped the blue ute for a breath test.

It was when they started speaking to him that alarm bells rang.

"[Police allege] that that person has never held a licence," Inspector Wixx said.

"At the time he was stopped there was a passenger in the car."

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The driver failed a roadside test and was arrested on the spot and taken to Tamworth Police Station where he allegedly blew 0.261 - more than five times the legal limit.

He was charged with high-range drink driving and driving while never holding a licence.

He was ordered to front Tamworth Local Court in October.

It was one of a number of drink driving charges laid over the weekend across the Oxley region, as well as New England. Operation Fume ran across Friday and Saturday.

"It's alarming," Inspector Wixx said of the detections.

She said just as concerning was the 34 drivers who were stopped for positive roadside drug tests - all in two days.

"A handful of people were detected for drink driving from low to high range PCA, but what is really concerning is the prevalence of people driving with drugs in their system," Inspector Wixx said.

"There were just multiple detections for people doing the wrong thing.

"The main focus was to saturate the region and really focus on driver behaviour on alcohol and drug use while people are driving."

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