A man who stole a running car from a Launceston driveway as a woman prepared to leave for work has been jailed for 20 months.
Brady Leigh Wheldon, 27, was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury of aggravated carjacking but convicted of the alternative crime of stealing.
The 31-year-old Nepalese woman had started her car to warm up at 5:40am on January 3, 2025, leaving the keys in the ignition while she returned to the boot.
Wheldon was riding past the Mowbray home on a bicycle he had stolen hours earlier from a relative, along with cash, a phone and bank cards.
He was breaching a curfew on his bail.
Justice Robert Pearce found Wheldon approached the woman aggressively as she stood near the car.
“I am satisfied that she felt threatened, intimidated and frightened by you and the manner of your approach,” Justice Pearce said.
The woman, who spoke little English, shouted out and ran to the door of the house to try to get help, but Wheldon drove away before her sleeping husband came out.
Her bag containing about $650 was inside the car.
Police spotted Wheldon in the car about an hour later outside his Newnham home.
He sped off at an estimated 100km/h in a 60km/h zone before dumping the car in a stranger’s driveway and hiding in a bush.
Justice Pearce said Wheldon had a long record driven by methylamphetamine addiction and had been to prison many times since 2017.
“For some years now you have done nothing to demonstrate that there is any realistic chance of rehabilitation,” he said.
Wheldon will be eligible for parole after 14 months and is disqualified from driving for three years from his release.
