AJAX PHP Upload file to database - php

Question

I am working on a script that uploads a file, calls a php script via ajax that uploads it to a folder on the server. This part is working correctly. The next step is to then take this file and insert it into a database (I know its not best practise but I have to due to exising db/software constraints) but I cant seem to get this to work at all.
I'll leave out the ajax as that is working correctly, here's the PHP:
$upload_dir = "./uploads";
$result["status"] = "200";
$result["message"] = "ERROR!";
if (isset($_FILES['file']))
{
echo "Uploading File...<br />";
if ($_FILES['file']['error'] == UPLOAD_ERR_OK)
{
$filename = $_FILES['file']['name'];
$destination = 'uploads/' . $filename;
move_uploaded_file($_FILES['file']['tmp_name'], $destination);
//THIS IS THE SECTION THAT DOESN'T WORK CORRECTLY. IT JUST DOES NOTHING AT ALL
//upload the image as a blob
$image = file_get_contents ($destination);
//see if there is anything already stored in blob
$sqlcheck = "select id from blobstore where id='$custid'";
$result = sasql_query($connect, "$sqlcheck");
if (!isset($row['id']))
{
$sql = "update blobstore set class='j', id='$custid', blob='".sasql_real_escape_string($connect,$image)."', createdby='$userid', createdat='". date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i')."' where id='$custid' ";
$insert = sasql_query($connect, "$sql");
}
else if (isset($row['id']))
{
$sql = "insert into blobstore (class, id, blob, createdby, createdat) VALUES ('j','$custid', '".sasql_real_escape_string($connect,$image)."','$userid', '". date_format($date, 'Y-m-d H:i')."') ";
$insert = sasql_query($connect, "$sql");
}
//WHEN I INCLUDE THE ABOVE SECTION TO UPLOAD THE IMAGE TO THE DB THIS ALSO RETURNS NOTHING, WHEREAS IF I TAKE OUT THAT SECTION IT RETURNS AS EXPECTED
$result["status"] = "100";
$result["message"] = "File was uploaded successfully!";
}
}
elseif ($_FILES['file']['error'] == UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE)
{
$result["status"] = "200";
$result["message"] = "The file is too big.";
}
else
{
$result["status"] = "500";
$result["message"] = "Unknown error.";
}
When I run this I am getting the error
Warning: Cannot use a scalar value
This error goes when I remove the following code
$result["status"] = "100";
$result["message"] = "File was uploaded successfully!";
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks