Christopher Sutton was driving along the Western Freeway at Miners Rest on October 9 when he failed to see a tray truck and hit it, causing extensive damage.

The Ballarat Magistrates Court was told on Friday Sutton told police responding to the crash he was travelling from Adelaide to home.

Before leaving with the police, Sutton requested to get his back-pack from the towing vehicle.

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Steve Kent said, due to Sutton’s behaviour and story of travelling from Adelaide, police searched the back-pack to find a large amount of cannabis.

He said officers located more drugs in the bag later at the Ballarat Police Station where Sutton was arrested and interviewed.

The bag contained 2.098 kilograms of cannabis, 10.77 grams of heroin and 9.38 grams of amphetamine. The amounts were all traffickable quantities.  

Sutton made no admissions to knowing the drugs were in the back-pack. He made partial admissions to driving the car, saying he had a long blink before the crash.

The court was told the Melton man had been a long-time drug user, mainly of cannabis, which he used to self-medicate for asthma and undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder.

Sutton, who has been in custody since his arrest 24 days ago, withdrew a bail application to plead guilty at an early stage to the charges. 

Leading Senior Constable Kent said general deterrence needed to be given in this case.

“Without people like the accused we would not have the deep suffering of the (drug) users and the constant flow of crime,” Leading Senior Constable Kent said.

Magistrate Bob Kumar sentenced Sutton to 24 days in jail, already served, and placed him on a two-year community corrections order which includes treatment and 250 hours of unpaid community work.

The father-of-four was fined $1500 and lost his driver’s licence for three months. He pleaded guilty to a string of offences, including trafficking heroin, cannabis and amphetamine, driving while suspended, careless driving and using an unregistered car.