‘Get me out of this city’

A 21-YEAR-OLD man was going to great lengths to free himself of the Toowoomba drug scene, his solicitor told the City’s Magistrates Court.

Benjamin Lee Bryan pleaded guilty to five drug-related offences including driving with cannabis and meth in his system on Drayton Road on November 6, and Goggs St on November 24; having small amounts of the drugs and scales for weighing them when pulled over by police on West St on November 21; and he had also failed to attend the police station to give his identifying particulars.

Police prosecutor Eddie Fraser said Bryan had been pulled over by police on November 21 after a police patrol noticed he had no rear number plate.

Defence solicitor Jag MacDonald, of MacDonald Law, told the court he would ordinarily submit for a term of probation, however, his client was moving to far north-west Queensland where he had the offer of a job with an uncle.

“He’d rather remove himself from this town and start afresh,” Mr MacDonald said.

Magistrate Graham Lee noted Bryan had completed a probation order in the past but he also noted the 21-year-old had a previous drink-driving offence in 2017 and a previous drug-driving offence before that.

However, taking into account his young age, Mr Lee ordered the convictions not be recorded and fined Bryan a total $2650 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for seven months on each of the drugdriving offences.