A SUNRAYSIA man has been charged three times in five days after being caught with drugs in his system and in his pocket.
At the time, Marcus Finnochiaro was on a community corrections order (CCO) for his role in a spate of burglaries from homes under construction in Mildura where he and two others stole a significant amount of property including power tools, timber and gas bottles.
The most recent offences breached the order which required he not get into further trouble.
On June 27, the P-plater was pulled over by police in Tenth Street and found with a zip-lock bag of methamphetamine and cannabis.
Less than 14 hours later he was pulled over in Eleventh Street and tested positive for driving with methamphetamine in his system, and told police “mate, I’m not on drugs”.
Three days later he was pulled over in the Kmart carpark, again testing positive for an illicit drug, and claiming he was not drug driving.
Before Mildura Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to two charges of drug driving, possessing cannabis and methamphetamine and breaching a CCO.
His defence said he had completed the drug, alcohol and mental health components of the CCO with Magistrate Steven Raleigh noting he had a poor history of complying with such orders.
Counsel said since the most recent offending, Finnochiaro had a couple of wake-up calls following the death of a family member and being involved in a head-on collision.
She said the accused spent seven days in a Melbourne hospital following the crash, which wrote-off his car.
He was placed on another CCO for 24 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.
His licence was disqualified for 12 months.
