A 50-year-old St George’s man who failed to appear in court for offences dating back to 2009, was fined a total of $3,900 in Magistrates’ Court yesterday.Kenneth Francis entered guilty pleas to a string of traffic offences, possessing drugs and drug equipment on October 16, 2009.Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the court that the defendant led police on a high-speed chase that started on Cedar Avenue at 4.15am and ended on Mount Hill in Pembroke.Francis was due to stand trial on January 15, 2010 but failed to appear. When asked why he said: “It was a bad time for me, I wasn’t working, I was on drugs and I lost everything.”He explained that he has since turned his life around, that he is now working full-time and that he has kicked his drug habit.Francis added that he was just in court on Monday to pay a $1,750 fine for another set of traffic offences.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner accepted his guilty pleas on charges ranging from impaired driving, driving in a dangerous manner in an unlicensed car with no insurance, violently resisting arrest, possessing 3.8 grams of cannabis, and a grinder.Mr Mahoney said the drugs were found in his pants pocket in two plastic twists when he was searched by police at the end of the chase that ended when Francis crashed into some bushes on Mount Hill.A further search of the car revealed an orange grinder with cannabis residue on it.He also noted that Francis struck a wall while being chased by police, and that he failed to stop at several stop signs. At one point he said the defendant nearly struck a police car.Duty counsel Kenrick James asked the court for leniency and noted that Francis has been working steady for the past five years.“When these offences were committed he was in a difficult place using drugs and he has managed to kick the habit. He wants to have the past in his past and he is remorseful,” he said.Mr Warner issued several fines, $500 for possessing cannabis, $300 for drug equipment, $800 for impaired driving and $500 for driving dangerously.He was also disqualified from driving all vehicles for one year, and fined $300 for failing to stop, $500 for no insurance, $500 for driving an unlicensed car and $500 for violently resisting arrest.The fines are to be paid by April 12.