Former NRL star Sam Burgess pleads guilty to traffic offences, avoids conviction
Former NRL star Sam Burgess has pleaded guilty to three traffic offences, including driving with traces of cocaine in his system.
The 32-year-old was pulled over in his unregistered BMW in the Southern Highlands in February, where police also discovered he'd never held a NSW license, despite being in Australia for more than a decade.
Today he avoided conviction and was instead ordered to complete a traffic offenders program.
READ MORE: Former NRL star Sam Burgess charged after BMW pulled over
Sam Burgess with his lawyer Bryan Wrench outside Moss Vale Local Court in February. Rhett Wyman/SMH
The court heard the former NRL star spent four weeks in rehabilitation.
"There is a real dichotomy here, there is the Sam Burgess before the 22nd, setting a bad example in the community and for those who looked up to him," Magistrate Mark Douglass told the court in sentencing.
"The Sam Burgess after that date has been to rehabilitation… undergoing a very strict regime into the non-use of drugs."
Earlier, Lawyer Bryan Wrench argued his client was under extreme personal pressure at the time and wasn't drug dependent.
The court was also told Burgess had been in a residential program and has returned multiple clean urine and hair follicle tests.
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