Mercedes Mum Margarita Tomovska sentenced for 232km/h pursuit
She dazzled in a $15,000 Tom Ford dress when she fronted court, but Mercedes Mum Margarita Tomovska has learned her fate for leading police on a pursuit at 232km/h.
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The notorious Mercedes Mum has been sentenced to a minimum nine months’ full time imprisonment for leading police on a pursuit at 232km/h.
Margarita Tomovska, 28, was emotionless as she disappeared, decked out in impeccable designer clothes, into the dock at Wollongong Local Court after Magistrate Susan McGowan sentenced her to 18 months in prison and a two-year driving disqualification.
Her solicitor Louie Angelovski told the St George Shire Standard he would lodge the appeal before the day’s conclusion.
Ms McGowan said the threshold for imprisonment had been well and truly crossed.
“Cars are lethal, lethal weapons - you may as well be shooting bullets from a gun because if you hit somebody, it’s going to be fatal,” Ms McGowan said.
“I am of the view that there’s no other sentence that will satisfy the requirements of objective seriousness and general deterrence other than a full time sentence of imprisonment.
“I just don’t think the court can be seen not to take such a view.”
Police prosecutor Amelia Wall had also argued there was no alternative to full time imprisonment due to the gravity of Tomovska’s offence and her attitude since the event.
“She has shown absolutely no remorse - in fact, quite the opposite,” Ms Wall told the court.
“She has relished the attention, skylarking on social media, playing the victim with a GoFundMe titled Fight Raptor asking for $100,000 for her legal fees while floating about spending thousands on clothing on her social media.”
Ms Wall also deemed Tomovska’s behaviour “reprehensible and deplorable”.
“Not only did she put her life at risk, but the child’s as well,” Ms Wall said.
“She had a complete disregard for the safety of the community, and for what?”
Tomovska said she was “scared” of her male passenger who was urging her on when she fled police at shocking speeds on the Princes Highway near Helensburgh in her $450,000 dark silver Mercedes AMG on November 13 last year.
She was found guilty of a police pursuit and exceeding the speed limit by more than 45km/h by Ms McGowan at Wollongong Local Court on August 30 and a back-up charge of exceeding the speed limit by 45km/h was withdrawn.
In her customary style Tomovska turned heads with a designer outfit worth thousands of dollars to court.
The die-hard designer fashion adherent wore clothes and accessories by Balmain, Versace, Dior and Tom Ford worth $15,000 for her final day before the magistrate.
The court previously heard a terrified three-year-old girl inside the car howled “I don’t want to go to jail” as she was comforted by a kind police officer who played her Frozen songs on her iPad.
The Caringbah woman was held at gunpoint by Strike Force Raptor officers when she finally pulled over after the 10km chase.
In body-worn footage previously tendered to the court there was palpable distress in the voice of Senior Constable Nathan Grant, who was driving the police car in the pursuit, when he realised the small child was inside.
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“How can you drive that fast when a baby’s in the car?” Senior Constable Grant asked Tomovska.
“When people run like that I assume they have something in the car.”
Ms McGowan rejected Tomovska’s submission she kept driving because she was frightened of her passenger, a man she said she barely knew from her gym named Christopher King.
Senior Constable Grant told the court officers had attempted to pull Tomovska over as they had intelligence Mr King may have had firearms in the car.
Mr King was not charged with any offences in relation to the incident.
Originally published as Mercedes Mum Margarita Tomovska sentenced for 232km/h pursuit