Carey Park man Kyle Dean Prior fined $1400 for resisting arrest, breaching order and cannabis possession

A Carey Park man has been ordered to pay $1400 in fines after resisting arrest while breaching a police order in a bid to obtain work clothes. Kyle Dean Prior appeared in Bunbury Magistrate’s Court on Thursday where he was fined after pleading guilty to charges of breaching a police order, obstructing public officers and cannabis possession. The court was told Prior was at his Carey Park home with his partner during the evening of August 26 when an argument broke out between the pair regarding Prior’s alcohol and drug use. After Prior’s partner called for police to attend, Prior was issued a 72-hour police order, barring him from the property or attempting to contact the woman. However, half an hour after the order was issued, police returned to the property to find Prior at the front door, prompting them to place him under arrest. Police were also told Prior had made 12 phone calls to the protected person before returning to the property. Although Prior was verbally aggressive towards the arresting officers and the protected person, he initially complied with police demands until he tensed his arms in a bid to resist being handcuffed. When police drew their tasers, Prior complied. The court was also told the officers were told of Prior stashing bags of cannabis within the property, which they located after a short search. They located a plastic shopping bag containing 18g of cannabis, as well as another large clipseal bag that contained 65g of cannabis. When police asked Prior about the cannabis, he said “it’s my weed” and explained he would smoke “about an ounce per week”. Prior’s defence counsel Paul Chapman told the court his client had returned to the property to retrieve work clothes for the next day and had tried to make arrangements to pick them up with the protected person, becoming upset when police were called to arrest him. Mr Chapman submitted that Prior had since realised what he did was wrong. It was also submitted the bag containing 18g of cannabis was “smokeable material” while the bag containing the larger quantity was “not smokeable”. In sentencing, Magistrate Benjamin Tyers told Prior that while he understood the frustration around being temporaily barred from your home, it “never works out well when you make the police’s job harder”. Prior also admitted to possessing MDMA with intent to supply to another person, which was committed to the District Court for a sentence mention hearing on June 22.