Dean Edward Cromb, defence solicitor Graham Lamond has told Albury Local Court, was also suffering from stress.

"There's a lot of issues towards the end of last year," he explained to magistrate Rodney Brender.

That, he said, was the flow-on impact of an inquest into the death of his son, Shaun Crighton, in a police pursuit.

But a coroner found last April there was no pursuit and that police took all reasonable care before the 19-year-old's death in a fiery crash on East Street, East Albury, on September 4, 2017.

The never-licensed teenager smoked methamphetamine and had been drinking then stole a ute in Wodonga before the crash.

Mr Lamond said Cromb was working as a truck driver, traveling about 5000 kilometres a week, at the time of his offending in February this year.

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He said the issue for Cromb was he was "self-medicating" with substance abuse, for which he was hoping to be accepted into rehabilitation at Benalla.

"My client is keen to avoid a jail sentence."

Mr Brender said that unless it was solely for medical reasons, he was not interested in excuses.

"It's just completely self-defeating to keep driving, it just gets worse," he said.

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Mr Brender said he did not believe the threshold had been crossed for Cromb to go to jail, saying: "He'll get there eventually, but he's not there now."

The court was told Cromb's licence was disqualified from December 14, 2018, to April 13, 2019, yet he was found driving in Lavington on both February 6 and 10.

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Cromb, 42, pleaded guilty to two counts of driving while disqualified and one of goods in custody suspected of being stolen, the latter relating to two stolen chainsaws, a welder and a welder's helmet found in his possession on March 20.

He was put on an 18-month community corrections order for the driving matters and disqualified for a further 12 months.

Cromb received a 12-month order and a $550 fine for goods in custody.