Brodee Podetti charged with hooning

An 18-year-old driver has been dressed down by the magistrates and remanded in custody after facing a Gympie court on multiple hooning and vehicle charges.

After allegedly treating a regional Qld city’s roads like a skidpan and “glorifying” the behaviour by brazen social media posts, an 18-year-old Bundaberg man has appeared in Gympie Magistrates court charged with multiple hooning and vehicle offences.

An 18-year-old Bundaberg man entered no plea when he fronted Gympie Magistrates court on multiple hooning and vehicle charges on Monday.

Brodee Podetti was arrested on Saturday, September 2, 2023, when Gympie police executed five search warrants as part of Operation Victor Coriolis.

Mr Podetti’s young face, with the beginnings of a handlebar moustache and thick, shoulder-length black hair was seen on the courtroom television as he appeared from the Gympie watch-house via videolink.

Defence solicitor Chris Anderson said Mr Podetti was prepared to live in Bundaberg under stringent bail conditions as he “links his reoffending to being in Gympie”.

Police prosecutor Melissa Campbell opposed bail and told the court hoon groups had increasingly become an issue, “brazenly” posting videos of their acts on social media, “glorifying dangerous behaviour”.

Police are urging people who might have dashcam or CCTV footage of a spate of hooning incidents around Gympie on Saturday, August 26, 2023. Picture: (supplied)

“You will see that the defendant before the court has been charged with a large number of offences including multiple dangerous operation of a vehicle and wilful damage,” Sergeant Campbell said.

“You also see that this defendant appears with multiple disqualified drives and he shouldn't even be behind the wheel behaving in this manner.”

To substantiate her opposition to bail she played four video clips to the court.

The first video, shared by a member of the public, allegedly showed Mr Podetti swerving up and down a country road at sunset, barely missing a parked truck.

The second video, taken by a police officer from the Gympie Central Shopping Centre car park, allegedly showed a red commodore circling multiple times around the Bruce Hwy and Excelsior Rd intersection with heavy smoke lifting from the tyres into the night.

Brodee Podetti has entered no plea to multiple hooning charges Gympie Magistrates Court. A video shown in court, shot by police, allegedly shows Mr Podetti hooning at the busy intersection of Bruce Hwy and Excelsior Rd.

The third video, filmed from a car window and retrieved by police from Mr Podetti’s phone, allegedly showed the car’s tyres ripping up rubber and smoke as the car spun around at night.

The last video was footage of police scrolling through messages and videos allegedly shared between Mr Podetti and others, “glamorising” and “glorifying” hooning behaviour.

Magistrate Bevan Hughes refused Mr Podetti bail and said he was a danger to himself and the public and the alleged offences showed no regard to safety.

“The offending includes self-aggrandising behaviour, which concerns me because it shows no insight on your part into the dangers to yourself and the public that this offending presents,” Mr Hughes said.

“In addition this offending is alleged to have occurred within one month of being disqualified from driving for similar offending as well as an offence of evading police.”

Mr Podetti has been charged with three counts of dangerous operation of a car, three counts of wilful damage, three counts of causing smoke from driving, and driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle on a disqualified licence with false plates.

He is expected to appear at Gympie Magistrates Court again on October 9, 2023.