A repeat dangerous driver who led police on a 40-minute chase across Hobart’s eastern shore has had his jail term increased after Tasmania’s highest court found his original sentence was “erroneously lenient”.
In reasons published on Monday, the Supreme Court of Tasmania’s Court of Criminal Appeal upheld a prosecution appeal against the sentence imposed on Justin Craig Cleaver.
Cleaver had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, aggravated evading police and other offences.
Justice Stephen Estcourt sentenced him on June 12 to two and a half years in jail, backdated to April 23, 2025, with the rest suspended.
That meant Cleaver served just under one year and two months before being released.
The appeal court has now increased the sentence to three years and six months from the same date, with Cleaver eligible for parole after two years and four months.
He has also been disqualified from driving for four years from his release, replacing a 15-month ban the appeal court found was below the legal minimum.
Cleaver, then 31, was on bail and banned from driving under his bail conditions when police spotted him at Rokeby around 3pm on November 7, 2024.
He drove off in a car fitted with stolen number plates, running red lights, crossing onto the wrong side of the road and hitting three vehicles, including a police car.
After driving over spikes at four locations, Cleaver continued on the rims until police rammed his car to bring it to a stop.
He ran from the vehicle but was quickly caught while wearing a fake beard. Cleaver later tested positive for methylamphetamine and amphetamine.
“This was a very bad case of dangerous driving,” the three appeal judges said in their reasons.
“When all of the circumstances relevant to sentence are considered … the total effect of the sentences imposed was erroneously lenient.”
The court noted it was Cleaver’s fifth dangerous driving conviction.
“A suspended sentence did not send an adequate message to other potential offenders or the respondent himself that conduct of this nature will not be tolerated,” the judgment said.
At his original sentencing, Cleaver’s lawyer said past trauma, including sexual abuse in custody as a young person, had left him with a strong reaction to flee from police.
