Tyson John Hanks: Kingaroy man sentenced to nearly two years jail for latest criminal foray

A serial offender has been blasted in court after a month-long crime spree across the region, including threatening a man with a knife and telling an elderly woman he would ‘come back and get her’ after he was busted on her property.

A criminal with a lengthy criminal dating right back to when he was 18 years old has been warned he’s no longer welcome in Kingaroy after his latest crime spree, in which he racked up more than 30 charges.

Kingaroy Magistrates Court was told that Tyson John Hanks notched up a whopping 33 offences between May 14 and June 24, including stealing hundreds of dollars’ worth of fuel and a string of assaults or other violent crimes.

Police prosecutor Lisa Manns said the most serious offence occurred on June 23, when a 74-year-old woman heard someone shouting on the porch of her Kingaroy home.

The victim discovered Hanks smoking and spitting on the porch and told him to leave, with the 31-year-old then turning back to the elderly woman and pointing his fingers at her like a gun, saying “I’ll come back and get you”.

The incident left the woman so terrified that she was unable to sleep and was shaking and crying while speaking with police.

Sergeant Manns said Hanks’s “rampage throughout Kingaroy” also included an incident at the Men’s Hostel in Kingaroy, where he approached another man while brandishing a 30cm kitchen knife.

Tyson Hanks

She said Hanks called the man, aged in his 60s, a “kiddie f--ker” and levelled the knife at him before punching the man in the head, leaving his victim fearing for his life.

A similar incident occurred the following day, when Hanks approached three people in Kingaroy and called one of the men a “paedophile” and assaulting him, going on to threaten the other members of the group.

Defence lawyer Yvette Valdez said Hanks had fallen into a downward spiral of drinking and not taking prescribed medication, with this substance abuse driving much of his latest offending.

Hanks appeared in court with 10 pages of criminal history, and was serving a suspended jail sentence during most recent crime spree.

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair slammed Hanks’s conduct, noting he already owed $25,000 in SPER debt that he would likely never repay.

“Quite frankly Mr. Hanks, the people of Kingaroy probably don't want you to come back to Kingaroy,” Mr Sinclair said.

Hanks pleaded guilty to 33 charges including eight counts of driving without a licence, four counts of stealing, and one count each of serious assault a person over 60, and assault occasioning bodily harm.

He pleaded guilty to a further six counts of threatening violence.

Hanks was sentenced to 18 months’ jail in addition to the three-month activated suspended sentence.

He was also disqualified from driving for two years.

He will be eligible for parole from January 24.