Nervous time before court for drug/disqualified driver on parole

The Toowoomba man was on parole for a bizarre armed robbery and disqualified from driving when he was stopped by police on the Warrego Highway.

The Toowoomba man was drug driving while disqualified and on parole when he was pulled over by police on the Warrego Highway.

A TOOWOOMBA man caught drug driving while disqualified and on parole appeared nervously before the city’s Magistrates Court today.

Troy Michael Wymer, 35, had been pulled over while driving on the Warrego Highway near Grantham about 11am, August 11, the court heard.

Police checks of his driver’s licence found he had been disqualified for two years from July 10, 2019, to July 9, 2021, on a previous disqualified driving offence.

He was also on parole after being sentenced in the Toowoomba District Court last year for a bizarre armed robbery in which he had taken a pizza delivery van from its driver in Hatton Vale late on September 26, 2018, and driven it back to Toowoomba because he thought his wife had forgotten to pick him up.

During a search of his car at Grantham, police found an ice pipe wrapped in cloth and tissue, the court heard.

Wymer pleaded guilty to drug driving while disqualified and to possessing a drug utensil.

His solicitor Amber Acreman, of David Burns Lawyers, told the court her client had been engaging well with his parole order and this was his first drug driving offence.

He had battled issues with substances for some time and is medicated for mental health issues, she said.

Her client had started on drugs after the breakdown of a seven year relationship, Ms Acreman submitted.

Magistrate Kay Ryan placed Wymer on nine months probation and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for a total 27 months.