A magistrate told a drug addict he had to get himself on a rehabilitation programme before he could be sentenced for obstructing a Police officer.

Magistrate Tyrone Chin passed a piece of paper with a telephone number on it for the Turning Point programme to Neiko Burchall after he appeared at court in a confused and barely-coherent state last Thursday.

Mr. Chin ordered him out of the courtroom and told him not to return until he had made an appointment to get help.

?Right now you don?t strike me as being credible and you don?t strike me as being clean,? he said. ?You are bumbling through life.?

The 30-year-old, of Warwickshire Drive, Warwick, pleaded guilty to obstructing Police officer Sherwin Joseph at the Swinging Doors nightclub in Hamilton on February 24.

Prosecutor Nicole Smith said officers attended the premises and spied Burchall acting suspiciously.

She said as they approached he put a brown paper twist in his mouth. They said they were going to search him and he then made ?several swallowing motions?.

?About two minutes later the defendant opened his mouth and shouted ?I have nothing in my mouth,?? said Miss Smith.

Burchall initially denied the charge but changed his plea midway through the hearing. He left the court, made an appointment with Turning Point for later this month and then thanked Mr. Chin for trying to help him.

Mr. Chin told him if he did not change he would be dead within two years. ?You have got to sort this out. We want you to get your life sorted.?

He adjourned sentence until June 28 and bailed Burchall for $1,000 with one surety.