NZ national to be deported after carjacking, Bruce Highway chase from Mackay to Glasshouse Mountains
His 900km trail of offending came to a dramatic end in the middle of the Bruce Highway, leaving victims of his crimes in towns along the way.
Police & Courts
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A Mackay man who held up a Hervey Bay woman at gunpoint and then led police on a Bruce Highway chase that ended in a dramatic rollover has been sentenced to seven years behind bars.
Jacob Riley Rata Brighouse, now 29, embarked on a two-week crime spree when he let meth take over his life.
The Seaforth man was with Mackay woman Kaitlynn Maree Flohr, 25, when they stole a white Toyota Corolla from a woman parked near WetSide Water Park in Pialba in November 2019.
Crown Prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said Brighouse had a list of offences in the lead up to the carjacking, from receiving stolen property to stealing petrol and number plates.
She told Mackay District Court he had stolen a car he drove from Mackay to Hervey Bay before experiencing mechanical problems.
“He felt the need to steal another car because of problems with the one he had stolen,” she said.
“Holding a cricket bat bag, he approached Holly Spence. She was only 20.
“She was walking to her car. When he neared her, he removed a shortened shotgun from the bag, pointed it at her lap and threatened ‘give me your keys and phone and you won’t get hurt’.
“He continued his demands over her objections and when she tried to run for help, still holding onto her car keys, he attacked her; punching, kicking and kneeing her.
“He pried the keys from her hand, and her victim impact statement reveals why she was so desperate to hold on to those keys, because this was the key ring from her deceased father.
“Ultimately she did not prevent him from stealing her car.
“He and his co-offender drove off. He had, in the interim, pointed the gun at another bystander who had attempted to intervene.
“He then proceeded to drive dangerously from Hervey Bay effectively to the Sunshine Coast.
“It included evading police. It culminated near the Glasshouse Mountains when he was doing a speed which had to be in excess of 174kmh.
“He dangerously overtook other drivers, drove off the side of the road and performed two handbrake turns and when he did the last of those, in effect, his driving ended because he collided with another car and rolled his onto his roof.”
Ms O’Rourke, who sought a sentence of eight to nine years in jail, said police found shotgun rounds and a loaded shotgun in the car.
She said Brighouse claimed he had the gun because he was planning to commit suicide before he was talked out of it.
Ms O’Rourke said the accused, who had a criminal history that including previous car stealing, admitted to deliberately driving dangerously to get police to stop following him.
She said his behaviour presented high risks to other members of the community.
“It was effectively a car jacking in broad daylight,” she said.
“Community protection looms large in this sentence.”
Brighouse, who is serving time in Capricornia Correctional Centre, also robbed a liquor store with a gun, waving it at the sales assistant who opened the cash register and took $746.30 from the till.
Defence barrister Scott McLennan said his client was a New Zealand citizen whose mother and brother left to move to Australia when he was age 15 and he lived with mates.
He said Brighouse eventually moved to Moranbah at age 19 and had a good work history across the Mackay region, Sydney and in New Zealand.
Mr McLennan said Brighouse found himself homeless and jobless in 2019 when he met up with a mate who was using methylamphetamine.
“This mate leant Mr Brighouse some cash and gave him some methylamphetamine, which my client started using,” he said.
“He was heavily using in the weeks leading up to the offending.
“He stopped using methylamphetamine some days before the robbery and was suffering withdrawal symptoms.
“Mr Brighouse is sorry and ashamed for his behaviour. He specifically asked me to apologise to the (victims) of the armed robberies.
“He was at a very low ebb.”
Judge Julie Dick set a parole eligibility date of March 14, 2022 and declared 614 days of pre-sentence custody as time served.
She said she took into account Brighouse would likely spend up to a year in immigration detention before being deported to New Zealand and the fact he had been in custody during Covid lockdowns which had been hard on prisoners.
Judge Dick said while Brighouse’s offending was “very serious”, she took a “really poor view of people who steal other people’s cars”.
“They’re expensive items. I don’t know whether you’ve ever owned a car, but people save up for them,” she said.
“It must be devastating to come out and find your car missing and then to find out it’s been smashed and you don’t get the car back, you get some measly insurance payout that doesn’t replace the car, that’s what happens.
“I believe you were on meth because this is how people behave.
“It always produces a flurry of criminal behaviour and … people behave completely differently when they’re affected by meth.”
Judge Dick disqualified Brighouse’s licence for six months.
Flohr pleaded guilty to four charges for her role in the incident; two counts of unlawful use of a vehicle to commit an indictable offence, armed robbery and assault.
She was sentenced in May 2020 to three years in jail.
The judge declared 193 days spent in pre-sentence custody and set a parole release date of August 15, 2020.
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