Road menace, car thief back on the road, plans to drive trucks

A road pest who hit 220km/h in a stolen car during a dramatic police chase, before pulling a woman out of another in a violent carjacking is allowed back behind the wheel.

Capes led police over a distance of more than 40km and at times hit speeds of 220km/h. File picture

A serial road pest and car thief who was banned from the road and jailed for leading police on a high speed chase and violently grabbing a woman and pulling her out of her car, is allowed back behind the wheel and plans to get a truck licence.

Jayden Andrew Capes, a father from Maroochydore, applied to the District Court in Maroochydore in a bid to remove the licence disqualification imposed by the Brisbane Court on August 5, 2021 after he led police on a 43km chase in a stolen Lexus on the Pacific Motorway through to Narangba speeding up to 220 km/h on September 17, 2020.

On July 11, Judge Gary Long, ordered that the absolute disqualification of Capes’ licence be lifted.

Capes will first have to get a learner licence, and then a provisional one, but he told the court he planned to apply for a truck licence.

“The punishment of (Capes) … has been very substantially effected,” Judge Long noted.

At Capes’ sentencing on August 5, 2021, the court was told he was driving a stolen car north from Mount Gravatt at 7.46pm when police chased the car onto other arterial roads and residential streets.

“You weaved the car in and out of lanes. You ran red lights, mounted the footpath in order to get past other cars and drive on the wrong side of the road,” Judge Vicki Loury KC told his sentencing hearing.

“Through the Clem 7 tunnel, where the speed limit was 80 kilometres per hour, you drove at an average speed of 176 kilometres per hour.

“You continued driving in a dangerous manner on the north side of Brisbane, again running red lights. At one stage, you drove for two minutes at high speed on the wrong side of the road, forcing others to take evasive action,” Judge Loury said.

At Bald Hills, police used road spikes but Capes, now aged 30, kept driving until he came across a woman and her brother driving in a Corolla.

He cut that car off and then grabbed the woman by her collar and pulled her out of her car, and sped off, later losing control and hitting a power pole at Narangba.

He was arrested after he fled the car.

Capes was disqualified from driving at the time.

A Queensland Police POLAIR helicopter on the move. Picture: Paul Sadler Photography/QPS

Judge Loury slammed Capes at sentencing for risking the lives of other innocent road users.

She sentenced him to five years’ jail, to be freed after serving the 18 months.

Capes’ younger brother Rikky, who was a passenger in the stolen Lexus was jailed for two years for two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and unlawfully entering a vehicle and unlawfully using a motor vehicle.

He was given immediate parole having served 96 days in pre-sentence custody.

Rikky’s license was also disqualified for years in 2021.

A hearing on July 4 was told that Capes was released on parole on March 21, 2022 and had not reoffended and since April last year had worked full time as a stores person at Alspec Aluminium, based in Brendale, on Brisbane’s northside.

Judge Loury noted his rap-sheet included a two-year licence disqualification in 2017 for failing to stop while a disqualified driver, then a $1000 fine for his first motorbike theft in 2018.

He stole a car on June 4, 2018, then seven days later was driving a stolen motorbike when he failed to stop when directed by police.

A few days later he broke into the police holding yard to steal the same stolen motorbike that police seized from him.

Weeks later he was chased by police, when he ran a red light at speed and was charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle and failing to stop.

In September 2018 he was sentenced to 18 months’ jail with parole after four months.

A week after he walked free on parole in November he again drove while disqualified, the court heard.

He was then sentenced to a year’s jail after he was convicted of a stealing and a receiving charge, with parole eligibility after two months.

Capes argued a licence would help him care for his two-year-old son, without relying on public transport.

Originally published as Road menace, car thief back on the road, plans to drive trucks