A man whose 125cc dirt bike had a mechanical breakdown when he was trying to evade police was fined $2564 in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
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Will Allan Bancroft, 22, pleaded guilty to evading police, using an unregistered motor vehicle and driving while not the holder of a licence on July 17 last year.
He also pleaded guilty to two separate counts of driving while an illicit drug was in his oral fluid and a further count of unlicensed driving.
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Police prosecutor Matt Hills said police activated their lights when Bancroft was seen riding on Old Bell Bay Road.
"The defendant did not stop and police deactivated the lights and followed when he turned onto the East Tamar Highway heading towards George Town," he said.
"Police shortly after came across him stationary beside the road after an engine malfunction."
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Bancroft was also caught with drugs, including cocaine, methylamphetamine and MDMA, in his system in Sandy Bay Road, Hobart, on October 10, 2020, and in George Town on June 5, 2020.
Defence counsel Grant Tucker said Bancroft panicked when he saw police but did not take off at speed.
He told Magistrate Ken Stanton that Bancroft, a stevedore who uses heavy machinery, was not a habitual user of drugs because he was regularly tested at work.
"It was residual use he had taken them that day," Mr Tucker said.
"They were party drugs and he did not know exactly what he was taking."
Mr Stanton questioned whether the employer's testing regime was enough to deter Bancroft's drug use.
"You have started your driving career in a disturbing way, driving without a licence," he said.
"Then there is evading police where if you had just pulled over...you made it much worse," he said.
"Fortunately as luck would have it you broke down."
He said he was surprised that Bancroft was not tested enough to pick up residual use of drugs.
He said an early plea of guilty indicated remorse and fined him $2564 including $1700 for evading police and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.
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