Zakaria Sylvester pleads guilty to driving while UIL, assault of obstruct police, fail to appear in court

A magistrate faces a difficult decision on whether or not to jail a man who has reformed himself in between committing offences and facing the justice system.

A father has been remanded in custody as a magistrate considers sentence over a series of offences committed six years ago.

A DISTRESSED woman was left sobbing in a courtroom saying, ‘what will I tell my kids’, after her husband was taken into custody this week for offences he’d committed six years ago.

Zakaria Sylvester appeared at Ipswich Magistrates Court for sentence on now dated charges after he fled the jurisdiction and failed to attend court more than five years ago.

Zakaria Sylvester, 30, from Goodna, pleaded guilty to driving UIL at Dinmore in March 2015; being a driver who did not have proper control of his vehicle; four charges of assault/obstruct police; driving when unlicensed; public nuisance; two counts of failing to appear at court; and contravening a probation order.

Defence lawyer Ali Rana argued that Sylvester should not be jailed because he had become a reformed man who was employed, now married with two children, and leading a productive life with no offending.

At the end of the hearing, Magistrate Dennis Kinsella ordered for Sylvester to be taken into custody for a week to allow time to properly consider all material before the court on an appropriate penalty.

Mr Kinsella asked why Sylvester had avoided the courts for so long, only to return some years later claiming rehabilitation.

“He has an appalling history when it comes to bail, and he absented himself from the jurisdiction,” Mr Kinsella said.

Prosecutor Sergeant Nicholas Turnbull said Sylvester was believed to have gone to NSW and SA over the past six years.

“He was on a suspended sentence for failing to appear at the time,” Sgt Turnbull said.

Mr Rana said there had been personal difficulties in Sylvester’s life at the time but he had since rehabilitated.

He said Sylvester was born in South Sudan and had to leave after his parents disappeared during the civil war.

He went via Egypt and arrived in Australia aged 14.

Sylvester had worked as a trolley boy, pizza deliverer, a dishwasher in Sizzler’s and even a tiler sending money back to support his siblings.

Two of his brothers had since died and he self-medicated with alcohol and drugs, at times becoming homeless.

Mr Rana said that since being married there had been a substantial positive shift in his life with employment and children.

Mr Kinsella said the question he needed to consider was whether Sylvester should serve actual jail time.

He remanded him in custody with the part-heard sentence to return to court on July 27.