Andrew O’Keefe pleads guilty, avoids drug driving conviction.

Former host of The Chase Andrew O’Keefe has pleaded guilty to driving with drugs in his system and given a 12-month good behaviour bond.

ABC reports O’Keefe was stopped in his Mercedes C200 in Point Piper, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, on January 20.

After failing an initial saliva test, he was taken to a police station for a secondary test, which returned a positive test result for methamphetamine when it was sent away for analysis.

O’Keefe was charged with one count of driving a vehicle with illicit drugs present in his blood.

Lawyer Sharon Ramsden produced documents to the court showing a raft of clear results from random tests, including one from 13 hours after the offence, to show his ongoing treatment for drug issues.

Magistrate Miranda Moody said O’Keefe did not have a driving history that “assists him”, commenting that it was “fairly persistent”.

But she said to his credit, there had been no drugs detected in his system for “quite some time” despite clearly having “some issues” with illicit drug use.

“It appears Mr O’Keefe is well engaged in treatment, which is once again to his credit,” she said.

The magistrate said she was prepared to deal with the matter by way of a 12-month good behaviour bond “given the enormous amount of work Mr O’Keefe seems to be doing” in relation to his drug and mental health issues.

She recorded no conviction.

O’Keefe was released from a rehabilitation centre in late October 2022.

He will face court again in January on separate assault charges. He has pleaded not guilty.