Lachlan Burns in Coffs court, charged with driving with cocaine in system

“Don’t try to mislead me,” the magistrate warned the business operator defending himself on a charge of driving with drugs in his system.

A Coffs Harbour business operator defended himself in Coffs Harbour Local Court on Monday.

Lachlan Petith Burns was facing a charge of driving a vehicle with an illicit drug present in his blood (first offence).

The 23-year-old, who runs an electrical business servicing the Mid North Coast, told the magistrate he was “trying to get a lesser sentence”.

“Everybody does,” Magistrate Michael Dakin replied.

He was detected driving with cocaine in his system in Coffs Harbour on October 2 last year and entered an early guilty plea, the court heard.

Burns told the court he “runs a business full-time with three blokes” and needs a licence to “take them from job to job.”

But Mr Dakin asked: “Can’t they take you from job to job?”

When Mr Burns indicated that yes, his workers could probably transport him from one job to the next, Mr Dakin cautioned: “Don’t try to mislead me.”

He also asked the young businessman if he had done any research on the drug cocaine and warned that it’s “not harmless” but that he wasn’t there to lecture him on the issue.

Mr Dakin also asked him why he was driving with an illicit drug in his system and he replied it was from “recreational use in prior nights”.

He was convicted and fined $300 and disqualified from holding a licence for three months from his court appearance on Monday, April 11.