An ice-addicted young woman with clear mental health issues has been jailed over her chronic repeated unlicensed driving.
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Albury Local Court heard this week how Alyssa June Pawley had in fact never held a licence.
And yet she had been charged with such an offence on six occasions since December of 2016.
The 22-year-old was shaken when jailed by magistrate Rodney Brender for seven months, having fronted court by video link to Junee jail.
With eight days already spent in custody, the sentence with its non-parole period of three months means she will remain behind bars until May 4.
Her latest driving incident took place in Kestrel Street, North Albury, back on September 21, yet she was only recently arrested and put before court because she had failed to appear on bail.
This stipulated that Pawley was supposed to have been living with her mother at Yarrawonga.
But when police later contacted her, Pawley’s mother said she had not lived there since January 23 and that she was possibly in the Wodonga area.
It was on February 9 that Albury police eventually caught up with Pawley after they pulled over a ute.
She was sitting behind the driver and when asked, gave police a false name.
But when police searched a blue handbag they saw in the car they found a Victorian proof of identity card for Pawley.
“She stated that she panicked and didn’t know what to do,” police said.
A police check revealed Pawley, who had been staying in Albury, was wanted for a breach of her bail.
Pawley had given a negative result to a preliminary breath test when pulled over in September, then gave a positive reading for methamphetamine.
Asked for her licence, she replied: “I don’t have one.”
That’s because a police check showed it was disqualified in Albury court on April 7, 2017, for three years.
Magistrate Rodney Brender said Pawley’s unwillingness to obey directions as part of the supervision conditions for her four good behaviour bonds meant there was no real alternative to full-time jail.
Defence solicitor Camille McKay earlier outlined how Pawley was diagnosed with depression and anxiety at 14 and began using methamphetamine at 18.
Ms McKay said Pawley had been “forced or pressured” into using “ice” by a former boyfriend, who had subjected her to “significant domestic violence”.