The number of defendants fronting court, charged with driving with illicit drugs in their system, has increased over the last few years to a point where they’re matching or outnumbering drink drivers.
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Matthew Raymond Joyce, aged 28, of Grattai Creek Road, Grattai, was fined $660 and disqualified for six months for the charge in Mudgee Local Court.
He tested positive for methamphetamine and cannabis when he was stopped at the intersection of Denison and Adams streets, Mudgee, at about 7.27pm, September 2, 2017.
Joyce was charged with the same offence twice in 2016.
Magistrate David Day told him cannabis is detectable for up to six weeks and “so if you take drugs and drive you’ll be pulled over again and again”.
And he noted, “two years ago in Newcastle we were getting more of these than [drink driving charges]”.
A woman was fined $550, disqualified for six months, and placed on a six-month good behaviour bond for driving with drugs in her system while also disqualified.
Davine Maxine Cottam, aged 44, of Gladstone Street, Mudgee, tested positive for for methamphetamine and cannabis in Market Street at about 11.18pm on November 7, 2017.
A check of her licence also revealed she’d been disqualified for a year from July 7, 2017, for earlier drug driving charges.
A woman from northern NSW requested that her charge be dealt with in her absence, arising testing positive to for methamphetamine and cannabis in Church Street, Mudgee, at about 7.35pm on October 13, 2017.
Cheryl Marie Murphy, aged 45, of Pacific Highway, Blacksmiths, was fined $110 and disqualified for three months.