A Hobart teenager who led police on a cannabis-fuelled high-speed chase across the Cambridge area last year has been warned to stay out of trouble or risk time in prison.
Cameron Robert Monks, then 19-years-old and a P-plater, “panicked” when a marked police car approached him while he was smoking cannabis parked on Cherokee Drive in Cambridge one Friday night in October 2022, according to Chief Justice Alan Blow.
He fled from the police after they activated their emergency lights and sirens, leading to a chase that lasted half an hour and covered around 23 kilometres along the Tasman Highway to Mornington, back to Pass Road, through Rokeby and then onto the South Arm Highway, where he was stopped using spikes.
“Eventually he slowed and stopped. At the end he was having difficulty steering the vehicle. He had two passengers, and one of them was yelling at him to stop,” Chief Justice Blow said.
“As well as travelling at dangerous speeds Mr Monks made turns without indicating, overtook a vehicle without indicating, travelled on the wrong side of Cambridge Road, drove through a red light and failed to stop when pursued by a marked police van with its lights and sirens activated.”
Justice Blow said the weather was wet and the roads were ‘relatively busy’ during the ordeal, after which Monks “made admissions” to police that he “had been smoking cannabis” and “had driven through roadworks at about 100km/h”.
The court heard that Monks does not have a bad criminal record, is single, employed and lives with his parents – but did go through “an unhappy period of his life in 2022 after being retrenched by an impecunious employer very close to the end of his second year of a carpentry apprenticeship”.
“He became unemployed, became estranged from his parents, suffered from depression, started taking drugs and lived an itinerant homeless life, sometimes couch surfing,” Justice Blow said.
Since then, Monks has reconciled with his parents, regularly attends therapy, is drug-free and has returned to playing sport.
He pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, evading police and driving with an illicit drug in his system.
He was fined a total of $4,680, disqualified from driving for 2 years and 6 months, given a suspended 2-month imprisonment sentence and a 12-month community correction order with specific conditions.
“Mr Monks, if you get into any more trouble in the next 18 months, there is a chance that you will be sent to prison,” Justice Blow said.
