The not-so-great escape

IT STARTED with the jump of a three foot fence at a Townsville minimum security prison and ended at gunpoint on the Bruce Hwy in Gympie 24 hours later.

CAUGHT: The stolen car which was impounded in Gympie after police stopped the escapees on the Bruce Hwy on New Year’s Eve. Picture: Contributed

IT STARTED with the jump of a three foot fence at a Townsville minimum security prison and ended at gunpoint on the Bruce Hwy in Gympie 24 hours later.

The story of three men escaping prison and taking a 24-hour joy ride down Queensland's main highway on New Year's Eve unfolded in Gympie Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Claude William Cobbo, 26, who had less than a month left to serve of a six year sentence, and Jacob Ben Allen, 26, who had only 10 days remaining, pleaded guilty to escaping jail and evading police in a stolen vehicle.

The men were where they were meant to be at 9.30pm on December 30, but two hours later a head count sounded the alarm.

The men, high on the drug ice, jumped the fence to get cigarettes from the corner store, the court heard.

When they realised they had stayed out too long, the escapees continued on, crossing swamps and convincing an unknown lady to call them a taxi.

Just after midnight, they ran from the taxi without paying and there began a jaunt which saw them evade police over an 1185km stretch of the Bruce Hwy.

The group of three met a man who offered to give them a lift in a red Kia Cerato brightly signed with the business logo Hound Dog Hairdressers.

The car was spotted at Kaumala, south of Mackay on the Bruce Hwy at 8.40am and three hours later at Marlborough, where police chased it but stopped when it hit speeds of 140kmh.

Cobbo and Allen's legal representative Mark Oliver, said even though the driver evaded police, the men did not realise the car was stolen until they reached Rockhampton and he told his passengers they could keep the car.

At 6.33pm, the car sped through Bourbong St, Bundaberg; but police had to call off the chase when the car drove 80kmh in a 50 zone.

The last leg of the chase was near Childers before the escapees sped down the Bruce Hwy towards Gympie.

That's when the stingers, used to puncture the tyres, took them by surprise at 9pm, just north of Gympie.

Mr Oliver said his remorseful clients, who had been held at separate maximum security prisons since their arrests, "got the shock of their life" when they were pulled from the car by police and held on the ground at gunpoint.

He said the escape was fuelled by the men being high on ice, which was readily available in the minimum security prison.

Cobbo, who was raised by his 91-year-old grandmother, escaped because he was also worried she was not being cared for.

The party had stopped off to visit her in Ayre on the way down the highway.

Magistrate M. Baldwin said the whole story defied belief.

"Mr Cobbo, you and Mr Allen are one of the saddest things I've had to deal with," she said.

She said to blow six years in jail, just one month short of release was incredible, and to put the community and police in danger was appalling.

"Of course you're remorseful because it was so stupid," she added.

Cobbo was given six months jail for escaping custody, 15 months for using a stolen car and 200 days for evading police. He was also ordered to pay $3105.60 restitution.

He will be released on parole on January 29 next year.

Allen's sentencing was adjourned to next week, due to parole complications and co-accused Craig Jackson will appear in Gympie Magistrates Court on March 15.

Jacob Allen, Craig Jackson and Claude Cobbo. Picture: Contributed