AN Orange taxi driver was caught driving his taxi with illicit drugs in his system at 8am in the morning and it was not his first driving under the influence offence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Matthew George Kotynia was unlucky the police drug bus was in town for a drug testing operation on the weekend of April 11.
The 33-year-old was seen by highway patrol officers leaving Mirral Way, where police believed was the home address of a drug dealer.
Officers pulled the 33-year-old over for a random breath test but he did not test positive for alcohol.
When asked where his licence was, he told them he had “physically lost it”, he was also asked if he had taken any illicit drugs.
“I had a couple of cones last night,” he told them.
After he had been taken back to the mobile drug bus to do a drug test he then admitted to further drug use.
“I had a point of ice but that was a week ago,” he said.
Police searched the car for drugs but found nothing.
In Orange Local Court on Thursday he was sentenced by magistrate, Bruce Williams, to the automatic six months disqualification from driving and fined $1000.
In his driving career he had been declared a habitual offender in 2004 and had charges of driving while disqualified, low-range drink-driving, driving an uninsured vehicle, driving an unregistered vehicle, driving with special range prescribed concentration of alcohol, driving while disqualified and driving with a suspended licence.