After being discovered in possession of cocaine, former Home and Away actor Orpheus Pledger was given a six-month good behaviour order.
According to Perthnow, Pledger failed to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday (November 16) for the hearing in which he was sentenced to a diversion programme, which will keep him out of jail.
On February 19, the former soap actress, 28, was accused with having half a gramme of Methylamphetamine, better known as ‘ICE,’ in Prahran.
He was also accused with illegally carrying 30 Diazepam (Valium) pills without a prescription.
According to the source, Pledger admitted responsibility for the accusations but did not enter a plea as part of the programme, which allows low-level offenders to avoid a criminal record.
Magistrate Tim Bourke also ordered Pledger to pay $150 to the court and complete a drug awareness course in addition to the good behaviour order.
Pledger was previously placed on a diversion programme in 2015, according to his lawyer, Carmela Pezzimenti, but the facts of those claims were not mentioned in court.
Pledger was just 21 at the time, she claimed, and she was unrepresented. She added that there was a “great lot of misunderstanding” around the case, and that documents of the offence were no longer available.
Mason Morgan, Pledger’s character on Home and Away, was killed off in 2019 after Pledger opted to quit the programme. Morgan was shot by a gang after sieging the hospital where he worked in his final appearances.
He’s been composing music while in lockdown since leaving the soap, according to the Daily Mail Australia: “There will be singing, but I’ve been concentrating on producing music. All of music’s great eras have influenced me over the years.”
