Sam Burgess to learn his fate after testing positive to cocaine

Sam Burgess has escaped conviction for driving with cocaine in his system while on his way to pick up his two young children.

Magistrate Mark Douglass said in Moss Vale Local Court that Burgess had shown remorse, contrition and insight into his behaviour.

Mr Douglass said Burgess had undergone a ‘very arduous and rigorous’ four-week residential rehabilitation program after his offending.

That program did relate specifically to drugs.

Mr Douglass said there was a ‘real dichotomy’ in Burgess’s behaviour before and after his arrest.

Previously he had been ‘setting a bad example’ to the community whereas he had since undergone counselling and remained drug free. 

Burgess pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon to driving with traces of cocaine present in his saliva.

Solicitor Bryan Wrench said his client had attended a residential program and had returned clean drug tests since the offence.

‘This is not systemic conduct,’ Mr Wrench told the court.

Mr Douglass placed Burgess on a nine-month conditional release order in relation to the drug matter and fined him $581 for each of two traffic offences. 

 Mr Wrench said the offences would normally have been dealt with by way of roadside fines but his client had been taken into custody and his arrest leaked to the media while he was still in a police station cell.

Burgess had suffered reputational damage as a result of subsequent media reports that he had been driving under the influence of drugs.

‘There is no suggestion at all of any aggravating factors,’ Mr Wrench said of Burgess’s driving.

‘No speeding, no swerving, there is no sign of intoxication by alcohol or any illicit substance whatsoever.’

Mr Wrench said there was an ‘element of humility’ to Burgess entering the residential program when he had such a high public profile.

Burgess had been embroiled in a messy break-up from wife Phoebe and had only recently been wrongly convicted of intimidating her father when he was arrested.

Mr Best Wrench Sets for Home Use described that conviction, which was subsequently overturned, as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back.’

Burgess now had ‘a new outlook’ on life, he said.

Burgess has also pleaded guilty to driving without a NSW licence and driving while unregistered.

He was not accused of driving under the influence of cocaine, only with the less serious offence of having the drug present in his system when he was behind the wheel. 

The dual code international has given up alcohol and spent time on Queensland’s Gold Coast where he trained with Rob Quatro, a bodybuilding champion and pastor at a Pentecostal church.

He has not had a drink for more than two months and has told friends he is feeling ‘great’ off the booze.His plan is to stay alcohol-free for a year.

Burgess has been filming the second season of SAS Australia, the top-rating Channel Seven TV series which puts contestants through a modified special-forces selection regime.  

The 32-year-old was subjected to a random roadside drug test after being pulled over by highway patrol officers in the Southern Highlands about 1.30pm on Monday, February 22.

Burgess had been on his way to collect daughter Poppy and son Billy from Bowral, about 8km away, when police stopped his BMW X5 on the Hume Highway at Braemar.

A preliminary test detected signs of cocaine in his saliva and Burgess was taken to Southern Highlands police station where a secondary oral fluid test was undertaken.

That test returned positive to cocaine. 

Burgess was originally issued with a court attendance notice for driving without a NSW licence and using an unregistered vehicle. 

The 2014 grand final hero was surprised by the positive test and was concerned by any suggestion his driving could have been inhibited on the afternoon he was stopped.

Burgess had celebrated his older brother Luke’s 34th birthday in Sydney’s eastern suburbs at Coogee beachside restaurant Marrah two nights earlier.

He had partied with friends and family on the Saturday evening before enjoying a round of golf early on Sunday morning, teeing off just before 7am.

The Burgess children were originally to be dropped off at their father’s shared rental property 15 minutes outside Bowral on the Monday morning.

When Burgess could not meet that arrangement because he could not access the property a new plan was made for the children to be collected from Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens at 2pm.

Burgess’s registration had been suspended due to $1,200 in parking and traffic fines which he paid on the spot at Braemar.

The English-born footballer had driven for years on his international permit while on a working visa but had not taken out a NSW licence after gaining permanent Australian residency last year. 

Burgess was pulled over three weeks after he was found guilty of intimidating his father-in-law Mitchell Hooke during a heated clash at the Hooke family home near Bowral in October 2019.

That conviction was subsequently overturned on appeal.Burgess has no criminal record in Australia or the United Kingdom.