Melbourne stoner high on ice caught driving a deathtrap

A Melbourne driver high on drugs was caught by cops at night in an car without functioning lights on bald tyres, a court heard.

Mitchell Guy Venturin pleaded guilty to a string of motoring and drug charges and breaches at Frankston Magistrates' Court, in Australia's Victoria state, on Monday (5 February).

The 25-year-old was spotted by police on the Mornington Peninsula Freeway, in Frankston a satellite town north of Melbourne, in the early hours of 4 June last year.

His car had no tail lights, no brake lights, one headlight, bald tyres and no P-plates, which indicates that the driver only has a provisional licence.

The father-of-two failed a drug test, due to ice in his system, a potent form of methamphetamine that can be smoked in similar fashion to cocaine. Its street name comes from resembling rock candy or a chip of ice.

The court also heard that just a month earlier, on 2 May, Venturin was arrested by police in Dandenong, a Melbourne suburb, driving without a seat belt.

When officers pulled him over on that occasion he also failed a drugs test, again due to ice in his system, reported the Herald Sun.

Prior to that, on 24 April, his house in Dromana, a suburb in the south of Melbourne, was raided by police who found glass jars of cannabis in his shed and a can of stolen police issue capsicum spray.

In an interview with officers he said the drugs were for personal use and the spray had been found in his backyard after a party months ago.

All of these crimes breached a community corrections imposed on Venturin by the courts last January.

In mitigation, his defence lawyer said the welder was back in work again, now leads a more settled life, and had pledged to stay off drugs.

Magistrate Franz Holzer fined Venturin $500 (£361), disqualified his licence for six months and gave him a 12-month community corrections order, which includes 100 hours of unpaid work.