'Its your choice' magistrate tells man trying to stay off drugs

Drew Alexander Jones, now of Prospect was sentenced in November last year to a twenty month jail term.

In April 2022 he had a sentence deferred on a raft of firearm, driving and drugs charges.

A drug treatment order allows Jones to avoid a seven month jail term if he stays off drugs, stops committing offences and abides by other conditions of the order.

Magistrate Sharon Cure said Jones' previous attempt at a drug treatment order was ill-fated because he lived on the north west coast.

He received a 148 day jail sentence for an aggravated evasion of police and disqualified driving in August 2023.

He was also disqualified from driving for five years.

"You have lost the right to drive a motor vehicle," Ms Cure said.

The court heard he had been found guilty of evading police 13 times since 2013.

"You're in double figures," she said.

She said two counts of evading police in 2022 included one count accompanied by reckless driving.

"You must be deterred because it is dangerous and it puts ordinary members of the public at risk," she said.

"You have repeatedly avoided pulling up and facing the music and it is fortunate that noting more serious has not taken place."

Ms Cure said that Jones had also been convicted of being in possession of a loaded gun in public.

Police prosecutor Kelly Brown said police had reservations about Jones being placed on a drug treatment order.

She said a critical part of Jones' success on the order related to who he associated with-namely whether it was people who used drugs.

"It's your choice whether you do what you always do or change,'' Ms Cure said.

Jones said his most recent term in custody had been a wake up call.

However, in April 2022 he wrote a letter to magistrate Cure outlining his wish to be a better person.