Stephen Harris under the influence prescription drugs during car crash in Orange

Stephen John Harris of Icely Road was driving east along Leura Road at 10am on November 11, 2019.

However, the 65-year-old lost control while negotiating a right-hand bend near the intersection with Leura Place.

Harris's car mounted the gutter and crashed into a tree on the northern side of the road and landed on its side.

The car landed on the driver's side. Neither Harris nor his female passenger appeared to be injured and they refused treatment from an ambulance that attended a short time later.

Harris admitted he could not produce a driver's licence when police arrived.

"I lost me [sic] licence 17 or 18 years ago," he said.

When the police officers asked him why he was driving if he was unlicensed he said he had gone to pick up his passenger.

The information about the crash was presented in a written report to magistrate David Day.

It included the police officer's view that Harris was impaired by a drug and that his actions were sluggish and clumsy.

The police said his balance was affected to the point he almost fell on a few occasions.

Although he tested negative to alcohol he failed a sobriety test and he told the officers he had recently received his daily dose of methadone at the methadone clinic in Kite Street.

He was also searched and found to be in possession of 74 alprazolam tablets in an unlabeled plastic bottle. The tables are commonly sold under the brand name Xanax and were seized by police.

Harris was taken to Orange hospital for blood and urine testing.

While at the hospital he appeared to be extremely drowsy, sluggish and in the midst of giving the urine sample he stumbled and crashed head on into the wall behind the toilet and almost fell backwards.

The tests led to an expert finding that he was under the influence of a cocktail of drugs: methadone, diazepam, nordiazepam, oxazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and codeine.

Many of the drugs are used for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety disorders.

Harris pleaded guilty and was unrepresented when he faced Mr Day in court on Tuesday.

Mr Day said Harris had a limited driving record.

"In lieu of a jail sentence I find it practical to fine him," Mr day said.

Mr Day fined Harris $550 and disqualified his driver's licence for 12 months for driving under the influence of drugs.

He fined him another $110 for driving while unlicensed and $220 for possession of the aprazolam tablets, which were not prescribed to him.