A Barrack Heights L-plater has learnt his fate for his sixth drug charge in four years after he confessed to taking ice before getting behind the wheel.
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Samuel James Upton piqued the attention of police when he drove a Ford Falcon at speed out of the Figtree Grove car park just before 9pm on August 6 last year.
Officers conducted checks on the 30-year-old vegetable farmer's registration plates which revealed he was a learner driver, before they followed and pulled Upton over on Turpin Avenue, Warrawong.
Police approached and when they requested Upton's licence, he conceded "well, I've lost it now".
The L-plater's front seat passenger did not hold their licence, and he confessed to officers he "had some ice a couple of hours ago" and that he also had "an ice pipe in my bag".
Upton's car was subsequently searched and officers uncovered two small bags of crystalline granules and a 'Sweet Puff' water pipe in a Nike shoulder bag.
A subsequent drug test returned a positive reading to methamphetamine and Upton was arrested at the scene.
On Tuesday, Upton was sentenced at Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited drug, possessing equipment for administering a prohibited drug and learner not accompanied by a driver.
Defence lawyer Emel Ozer told the court Upton was engaging with drug services and that as a farmer, having a licence was vital to his employment.
However Magistrate Gabriel Fleming lambasted Upton for coming before the court for his sixth conviction for possessing a prohibited drug since 2019.
"It's not good enough that you keep using meth ... you've been coming back to court for years," she said.
Upton was fined $700 fine and handed a 12-month community correction order.
He was also ordered to continue attending the Illawarra Drug and Alcohol Service.
Read more Illawarra court and crime stories here.
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
