A Victorian teen who crashed his car while on drugs just hours after Yass Valley police suspended his driver's licence has faced court.
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Simon Do, 19, of Maribyrnong in Victoria, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a prohibited drug, one count of possessing a prescribed restricted substance, and one count of failing or refusing to comply with a prohibition when he appeared in Yass Local Court on November 15.
According to police facts tendered in court, on September 26 about 9.15pm, police responded to complaints of Do driving dangerously on the Barton Highway in the Yass Valley.
During a search, police found 27.14 grams of cannabis in Do's underwear and a glass jar inside his car. "That's my big jar, eight days' worth for me," Do told police.
Police also found four capsules of a crystal, rock-like substance.
"That's MDMA, it's actually one cap," Do told police. "I took some the other day and I went all bad, like, I was hugging everyone.
"So what I did was break the cap into four small doses so they wouldn't be as strong."
Police also found 17 tablets of prescribed Xanax.
Do passed a roadside drug test but was arrested and charged for drug possession. Police also suspended Do's driving licence for 24 hours.
Two-and-a-half hours later, Do was found at the scene of a car crash on the Mount Pleasant overpass in Wollongong.
After hitch-hiking back to his car at Yass Service Centre, Do drove to a friend's place in Wollongong, stopping at the Pheasant's Nest truck stop about 10.30pm to inhale laughing gas from a balloon.
While driving over the Mount Pleasant overpass, Do lost control of the car, hitting the centre concrete barrier, spinning and hitting a metal barrier.
Numerous triple zero calls were made by members of the public.
When police arrived they found Do to be intoxicated. Despite returning negative to a drug test, police noticed Do's speech was very slow and slightly slurred.
Police also found dozens of nangs (capsules containing laughing gas) with used balloons in the car, as well as bongs for cannabis.
In court, Do's solicitor said his client had broken up with his girlfriend, borrowed his mother's car and driven to New South Wales. His client had stopped taking drugs, apart from "a bit of cannabis," he said.
However, Magistrate Geraldine Beattie said Do should have slept in his car. "You can't drive if that's what you've been told," she said.
Magistrate Beattie also stressed the risk of taking prescribed substances. "It's prescribed by an expert. You are not the expert. It's not for you to decide," she said.
Do was fined $750 for driving when prohibited, $600 for the cannabis, $450 for the MDMA and placed on a nine-month community corrections order.
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