An unaccompanied L-plater caught drug driving four times in nine days was also the driver in a crash that killed his passenger only a month later.
Tyson Gavin Forrester, 26, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to 17 charges, including driving in a dangerous manner, four counts of drug driving, three of being a learner driver without a supervising driver, speeding by between 10 and 25km/h, two counts of using an unregistered vehicle, five of driving without L-plates attached and driving with ineffective headlights.
He appeared in court on a video link from prison, where he is already serving a seven-year County Court sentence for a separate driving matter where he was the driver in a fatal crash that killed his passenger at Arcadia in April last year.
The court heard that on the worst occasion this time, Forrester overtook two other cars on the left, driving on a gravel shoulder of Archer St in Shepparton between Broken River Dve and Wilmot Rd, on February 21 last year.
The other vehicles were doing the 60km/h speed limit.
Forrester was an L-plater without an accompanying driver in the car, and he tested positive for methamphetamines.
The car was unregistered, and he was not displaying L-plates.
The court heard he told police at the time he overtook on the left “because I got excited”.
Eight days earlier, he was picked up by police driving at 77km/h in a 60km/h zone in Wheeler St, Shepparton.
On that occasion, he also tested positive for methamphetamines, was driving without a qualified driver, was not displaying L-plates and the car was unregistered.
Forrester told police that day he was driving because he had just bought the car and was trying to get it home.
He was also stopped on February 27 and March 3 last year, and both times, he was charged with drug driving and not having an accompanying driver as an L-plater.
A mere six days later, he was pulled over twice in one day — both times for not having an accompanying driver and the second time for not using his headlights.
Forrester’s solicitor Shana McDonald told the court all the offences occurred in a short time.
She also said a month later — in April last year — he was involved in a car crash where he was severely injured and his passenger died, and he was now serving a jail term for it.
Ms McDonald said Forrester had a troubled upbringing and had experienced significant violence in his younger years.
She also said he had “a deep level of shame, guilt and remorse for driving while having methamphetamines in his system”.
Magistrate Peter Mithen fined Forrester $2000 and said he could convert it into jail time to be spent at the same time as his current prison term.
“Every warning you were given about these sort of matters came to fruition,” Mr Mithen said.
“These driving incidents were deplorable.”
Forrester was also disqualified from driving for 12 months and will have to do a safe driving program before her can get his licence back.