Matthew William Reed, 51, of Murrumbateman, came before court on Thursday, September 15, charged with driving with an illicit drug present in his blood. About 9.20am on Wednesday, May 11, a prime mover towing two trailers driven by Reed was stopped by police on the Barton Highway near Spring Range for the purpose of a random breath and drug test. His breath test was negative but an oral fluid test produced a positive detection to Cannabis. Reed provided a sample of oral fluid, part of which tested positive on the Drager Drug Test. The other part was sent away for analysis. It returned a result positive to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. In relation to taking drugs, Reed said he “had some a couple of weeks ago”. Magistrate Carolyn Huntsman fined him $400 and disqualified him from driving for three months.
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James Jordhan Wellington, 24, of Turner ACT, also came before court charged with high range drink driving and resisting an officer in the execution of duty. About 1am on Sunday, June 26, Wellington drove along Adele Street where he turned right into Comur Street. An off-duty police officer was driving behind the car when he saw it veer to the right of the road before correcting itself. The off-duty officer also observed him drive through a stop sign without stopping before running into a gutter. Wellington was stopped in Shaw Street. Duty police arrived and saw Wellington walking away from his vehicle. He was asked to stop by police but said, “No, I need to find my sister.” Police repeatedly asked him to stop before taking hold of Wellington, who pulled away numerous times. He was placed under arrest and a struggle ensued. He was eventually taken to Yass Police Station and subjected to a breath test, which returned a reading of 0.184 grams of alcohol in 210 litres of breath. He admitted to consuming 12 schooners of Carlton Dry beer between 5.30pm and 12.40am. He told police he had driven as he had received a call from his step-sister who sounded distressed and needed his help and his intention was to check on her welfare. He later apologised to police. Wellington was ordered to serve 100 hours of community service and a mandatory interlock order with a minimum initial disqualification period of 6 months and a minimum interlock licence period of 24 months. He was also fined $400.