Thomson was arrested at 01:10 on 10 December when plain clothed police officers in an unmarked car saw him driving a red van.

Suspicions arose around Thomson when he parked the van near the officers and refused to make eye contact with them, before beginning to walk away at speed.

They pursued him and stopped him, and he was found in possession of two suboxone tablets – which were found to be prescribed to him – and a hammer in his rucksack. The officers also found plastic bags thrown onto a grass embankment along the route Thomson had walked. Those were found to contain 9.66g of amphetamines and 3.89g of MDMA, or approximately nine tablets. 

Neither a driving licence nor insurance for the vehicle were produced.  

At the time this occurred, Thomson was already on a suspended sentence handed down by the Magistrates Court for obstructing an arrest earlier in the year. During that incident he had attempted to stop police arresting a female friend of his who had been seen in possession of drugs.

After his more recent arrest, Thomson failed to appear on bail, but was then taken into custody after being found in the Boet, where he again tried to run away from police officers. He has been remanded in custody since that time.

In court, Thomson’s defence lawyer said he had been carrying the hammer for self defence, because he had been receiving death threats from a person “known to follow through” with their threats. That person was purportedly wielding a pickaxe handle and knuckle dusters.

Thomson explained that he had been using the drugs because his life “was in chaos”. He has a string of previous convictions, but most of them were during his teenage years, during which he served a period of time in youth detention.

Judge Graeme McKerrell gave credit to the defendant for his guilty pleas, but gave him eight months for the drugs charges, two months for the driving convictions – and a three year driving disqualification – and three months for possession of a weapon. That was added to the six months in prison that came from breaking his suspended sentence.

In total, Thomson will be in prison for 14 months and six weeks.