Phillip Navarra: Luxury wedding venue employee sentenced for drug driving while disqualified
An employee of a family-owned premier hospitality company denied taking cocaine after he was caught driving with the illicit substance in his system while visiting a catering firm in southwest Sydney.
Liverpool
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An employee of a family-owned premier hospitality company denied taking cocaine after he was caught with the illicit substance in his system while driving to a catering firm in southwest Sydney.
Phillip Navarra, 24, was sentenced at Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday after he previously pleading guilty to driving disqualified and driving with an illicit drug in his blood.
Navarra’s lawyer said his client worked at his family’s reception centre in Lilyfield and was supporting the management team when he “unfortunately” drove to visit a new catering firm at Canley Vale and was stopped by police on July 25.
According to Navarra’s LinkedIn profile, he has worked at Navarra Venues – the company behind some of Sydney’s iconic luxury wedding locations, including Le Montage and Curzon Hall – for 11 years and is currently a full-time sales associate and venue manager.
Court documents state police checks found Navarra was a green P-plater and disqualified from driving between November 2023 to 2028 for a previous charge of middle range drink driving and not obeying interlock orders.
“Police questioned Navarra regarding his licence status which he stated he needed to travel to work as he works in hospitality,” facts state.
The 24-year-old returned a positive result to cocaine, but a secondary test at Fairfield police station later detected a negative reading.
Navarra was also pulled over by police in September last year in Bellevue Hill for exceeding the speed limit where he failed to produce his licence which was suspended due to a “demerit point suspension”.
Facts state Navarra returned a positive breath test and following further testing, also returned a positive result to cocaine.
“In relation to the taking of drugs, Navarra stated he did not consume any cocaine,” facts state.
Navarra’s lawyer said his client, who is completing a Bachelor of Commerce at Macquarie University, had “no excuses” for his behaviour and recognised his offending could carry a jail sentence.
“He tells me he did a traffic offenders program for drink driving … he won’t do this again,” he said.
The prosecution argued the 24-year-old had almost “30 traffic infringements on his record”.
Magistrate Sean Hughes said most of Navarra’s driving matters were “low level speeding offences” until he was caught for mid-range drink driving last year.
Mr Hughes warned Navarra could “end up in jail” if his driving record continued, where there “won’t be a lot of job opportunities there, he can be rest assured of that”.
Navarra was convicted of both offences, fined $500, and disqualified from driving for four months for driving with an illicit substance in his system.
He was also fined $1,500 and sentenced to a community correction order for two years for driving while disqualified.
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