Matthew Bennett in Bathurst Court for driving with meth in system

Matthew Christopher Bennett, 36, of West Street, Bathurst, has been taken off the road for six months after he pleaded guilty in Bathurst Local Court on May 10, 2023 to driving with a drug present in his blood.

Bennett was behind the wheel of a white Ford Focus heading south along Lambert Street in Bathurst about 4pm on September 17, 2022 when he stopped outside the Dudley Hotel, court documents said.

After he did a U-turn over double lines, he was stopped by police who asked for his licence and that he participate in an oral drug fluid test, which came back positive to methamphetamine.

"I haven't had it [drugs] for a good couple of months," Bennett told police.

The court heard Bennett was arrested and taken to Bathurst Police Station where he gave a second positive reading to illegal drugs.

A sample of his test was sent for forensic analysis, which later confirmed the presence of meth.

A self-represented Bennett told the court during sentencing he used drugs to escape reality but admitted "you've got to face it [reality] at some point".

Magistrate D Pearce read through Bennett's criminal history and found it "unbelievable" that he had committed similar offences on at least two prior occasions in 2019 and 2020.

"Every time you drive with alcohol or drugs in your system, you get caught," Mr Pearce said

"You're lucky there's no jail sentence today."

Further to the disqualification period, Bennett was convicted and fined $800.

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