A Hobart teenager who led police on a dangerous half-hour chase while under the influence of cannabis has been given a suspended sentence and warned that any further offences could land him in prison.
The 19-year-old P-plater “panicked” when a marked police car approached him while he was smoking cannabis on Cherokee Drive in Cambridge on a Friday night in October 2022, the Supreme Court heard.
He fled after police activated their emergency lights and sirens, sparking a 23-kilometre pursuit along the Tasman Highway to Mornington, back to Pass Road, through Rokeby and onto the South Arm Highway, where he was finally stopped using road 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 Alan Blow said in his published comments.
“As well as travelling at dangerous speeds, [he] 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.”
Chief Justice Blow noted the weather was wet and roads were relatively busy during the ordeal. He said the teenager admitted to police that he “had been smoking cannabis” and “had driven through roadworks at about 100km/h”.
The court heard the young man had experienced significant personal difficulties in 2022 after being “retrenched by an impecunious employer” near the end of his 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,”Chief Justice Blow said.
Since the incident, the defendant has reconciled with his parents, regularly attends therapy, is drug-free and has returned to playing sport.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, evading police and driving with an illicit drug in his system.
The court fined him $4,680, imposed a driving ban of two years and six months and handed down a suspended two-month jail term alongside a 12-month community correction order.
“If you get into any more trouble in the next 18 months, there is a chance that you will be sent to prison,” Chief Justice Blow said.
