Jockey Michael Connick caught drug-driving twice in three months given jail warning if nabbed again
Jockey Michael Connick has been told by a magistrate he is “gravely at risk” of going to jail if he reoffends. The veteran rider faced court in Frankston after being caught for the fourth time driving on drugs or over the alcohol limit.
South East
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A veteran jockey with nearly 500 rides to his name has had to give up the saddle after being caught drug-driving twice in three months.
Michael Connick was also unlicensed, and on one occasion his car had run out of rego.
This was the fourth time the hoop had been nabbed driving while either high on drugs or under the influence of too much alcohol.
Connick has had a long career in the saddle, riding 474 times for 44 wins and 82 places at tracks across Victoria and Tasmania.
His most famous win was steering the Lee Freedman-trained Le Zagaletta to take out the Lifesavers Handicap at Moonee Valley in 2003.
The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to two drug-driving, two unlicensed driving and one driving an unregistered car charges at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on January 31.
The court heard Connick had lost his licence in June 2015 for drink-driving, and had never bothered to reapply to get it back.
Police saw him on November 21, 2018 on Frankston-Flinders Rd in Hastings and pulled him over for a routine check.
They found he was unlicensed, and he tested positive for both cannabis and ice.
He said he smokes marijuana “regularly” but didn’t know why ice was in his system.
When asked why he was driving without a licence while high on drugs, he told officers he was “a w**ker” and “a d**khead”.
But he was caught again just a few months later.
On Peninsula Link in Baxter on February 13 last year he was stopped by a police patrol because his car was unregistered.
Again he tested positive for drugs, telling officers he had smoked marijuana two nights before with his girlfriend, and that he was driving because he had to get to work.
He represented himself in court, saying he had been doing track work at Mornington but lost his job because he couldn’t drive.
“It’s taken a big toll on my life,” he said.
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But magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said Connick would bear a much larger burden if he had killed someone.
“You drink-drive and drive with drugs on board,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“This is now your fourth time; how many times are you going to do this before you are sent to jail?
“If you drive during this period of disqualification you are gravely at risk of an immediate term of imprisonment.”
Connick was convicted and fined a total of $1750, and disqualified from driving for 15 months.