On the police facts sheet and the court attendance notice that you may have received you will have a reference to the law part and a short description of offence. These references help the court and the legal profession to identify the exact offence you have been charged with. The law part and short description for this offence are set out in the table below:

The maximum penalty for the charge of drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood (Section 11B[1a] of the Road Transport [Safety and Traffic Management Act]) is 10 penalty units for the first offence or 20 penalty units for the second or subsequent offence.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for an drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood charge.

• Section 10: drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood proven but dismissed
• Fine

You’ll find a brief description of each of these penalties at the bottom of this page.

Likely Penalty

Local Court

Based on our experience and statistics from the Judicial Commission of New South Wales we believe that the penalty in a case that is within the mid range of seriousness for the offence of drive vehicle with illicit drug in blood, if heard in the Local Court is likely to be a fine of $400.

For first time offenders the likely penalty is a fine of $500.

To convict you of a drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood charge, the police must prove each of the following matters beyond a reasonable doubt:

That there was present in your oral fluid, blood or urine a drug described in the court attendance notice, or a combination of drugs, any one of which was described in the court attendance notice.

They will also need to prove that you were the person who committed the drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood offence.

Possible defences to an drive vehicle with illicit drug present in blood charge include but are not limited to:

• Duress
• Necessity
• Self Defence

It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence involving morphine if you can prove that that the presence of morphine was caused by the consumption of a substance for medicinal purposes.

The Local Court has jurisdiction to make orders and determine applications for this matter, except where the defendant is under 18 years of age at the time the application is made. The District Court has jurisdiction where an application by or on behalf of the person for whose protection an apprehended violence order (AVO) is sought has been dismissed by the Local Court or the Children’s Court.