Lewis Bellerby caught drug driving at Gympie

A plasterer with his own business but serving a suspended sentence over a Sunshine Coast home invasion has avoided possible jail after a roadside test found cannabis in his saliva.

Lewis Bellerby, 40 of Gympie and previously jailed over his role in a violent attack at a man’s Sunshine Coast home in 2019, has avoided being sent back to prison after being caught driving while on medicinal marijuana.

A 40-year-old plasterer who spent time in jail for his role in a violent attack at a Mapleton home in 2019 has avoided being sent back to jail after police caught him driving with medicinal marijuana in his system.

Lewis Bellerby, of Gympie, was picked up by police at a roadside testing point on Valentine’s Day 2024, the city’s District Court was told Friday.
The test revealed the presence of marijuana in his saliva.

He was immediately fined $600 and disqualified from driving for six months.

Bellerby was jailed for four years in May 2021 and then on a suspended jail sentence for 34 months for the Mapleton incident on December 29, 2019.

Lewis Bellerby, 40, of Gympie and previously jailed over his role in a violent attack at a man’s Sunshine Coast home in 2019, has avoided being returned to prison after being caught driving while on medical marijuana.

Police prosecutor Annika Fritz said he had a legal prescription to use medical marijuana but “nevertheless the legislation has not been amended … or presently, to allow anyone to drive with it in their system”.

She said Bellerby’s latest offence was “completely dissimilar” in nature to the 2019 crime and it would be “unjust” to send him back to prison.

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Bellerby’s lawyer said his client obtained the prescription to help him deal with a workplace injury sustained from his career working with gyprock.

He had initially treated it with opiates, but ultimately became “over-reliant” on them.

Medical marijuana had allowed him to stop using the opiates entirely, the court heard.

Gympie District Court Judge Michael Byrne agreed it would be “unjust” to order Bellerby to serve the rest of his suspended sentence, and instead extended its expiration date to December 2026. Photo Patrick Woods / Gympie Times

The court was told traces of medical marijuana could remain in the system for about two weeks, and possibly longer.

Bellerby’s lawyer said his client had since stopped using the drug and reverted back to the opiates to ensure he was not breaking the law while driving.

Before being picked up at the roadside test Bellerby was running a successful plastering business employing five people, his lawyer said.

He hoped to resume it once these matters, and forthcoming surgery, allowed.

Judge Michael Byrne said the difference in nature between this offence and those committed in 2019 by Bellerby was “not trivial”.

It was also “not trivial” this was the second time Bellerby was before the court for breaching the suspended sentence for drug-related offending, but agreed it was “unjust” to jail him.

Mr Byrne instead extended the suspended sentence to December 2026, saying time would tell whether Bellerby had “learned (his) lesson”.

“You can’t keep coming back, no matter how different the offending is,” he said.