Police stopped a 46-year-old man in Split on Friday evening who was driving without a valid license, refused a drug test, and was found with methadone and a knife. Despite a proposal for 60 days in prison, the court released him.
An unusual sequence of events unfolded over the past weekend in Split, where police stopped a 46-year-old man behind the wheel of a car. A routine check quickly escalated when it was discovered that the driver had never passed a driving test, and a search resulted in the discovery of dangerous items and substances.
According to police information, the stop occurred on Friday evening, August 7, around 10 PM on Ulica Hrvatske nezavisnosti. During the procedure, the 46-year-old refused to be tested for the presence of drugs in his system, as well as a medical examination and the taking of blood and urine samples. Further inspection led police officers to find two bottles of methadone for which he did not have a valid prescription.
Additionally, the man was carrying a knife with a blade approximately 15 centimeters long, which was immediately confiscated. Given the overall circumstances, he was arrested and brought before the competent court.
Given that this is a repeat offender, the police proposed a sentence of 60 days in jail to the court. They also requested a measure banning him from driving B-category vehicles for 12 months.
The competent court, however, did not accept the proposal for detention. The man was released, and the entire case has been referred to regular proceedings.
Interestingly, on the same day, another traffic repeat offender was arrested in the Split area, whose case ended quite differently. Police officers from the Solin Police Station attempted to stop a 42-year-old motorcyclist around 3:28 AM using light and sound signals, but he did not stop and continued driving toward Split. He was eventually stopped on Ulica Zbora narodne garde.
It was established that he is a multiple offender of traffic violations, having already been legally punished three times, including for refusing drug tests. This time, he was riding a motorcycle even though his driver's license had been revoked and confiscated after accumulating 12 negative penalty points, and he had not yet regained the right to drive. The police temporarily seized his motorcycle and proposed to the court that he be detained, sentenced to 45 days in jail, fined 390 euros, and have the motorcycle permanently confiscated. The court ordered this 42-year-old to be detained for 11 days, after which he was handed over to prison.
Thus, two repeat offenders, within less than a day, ended up before the court for serious traffic violations, but with completely different outcomes – one ended up behind bars, while the other, with methadone and a knife, was released.
