Gary Charles Steele sentenced for violent road rage attack in Coolum

Dashcam footage caught the moment a road rage incident turned violent, leaving a 58-year-old man in hospital.

A violent road rage incident caught on dashcam footage has landed a 60-year-old Sunshine Coast business owner in court.

Gary Charles Steele was given a suspended prison sentence of 15 months on Thursday after pleading guilty to wilful damage and assault occasioning bodily harm.

The December 18 attack left a 58-year-old man in hospital with a 3cm cut, bruising, swelling and haematomas to his face.

The Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard Steele was driving near the victim in Coolum before the altercation happened.

Police prosecutor Lee Allan played the court dashcam footage recorded from the rear of the victim’s car.

The footage shows the victim stopping and telling Steele: “Where the f--- are you going? You’ve already ran a red light”.

Steele’s van is off camera.

The footage then shows the victim turning and laughing as he overtakes Steele’s van.

He continues driving and the van follows for several minutes until they come to another stop, and Steele jumps out of his car and approaches the victim who drives away.

“F-- off I’ve got you on f---ing camera, mate,” the victim is heard saying.

Steele followed the victim and again when the vehicles come to a stop he gets out of the car and walks towards the victim’s car which he can be seen kicking.

The victim exits his car, throws an object towards Steele and the two men can be seen fighting.

Steele lunges towards the victim and lands several punches to his head, knocking him to the ground where he continues to punch and kick him.

Steele then pulls up the man and holds him by the neck and the victim’s face appears in front of the camera covered in blood.

The footage showed Steele then retreated back to his van and drove off.

Senior Constable Allan said the 58-year-old was taken to hospital and treated for a 3cm cut to his cheek, bruising, neck pain, swelling and haematomas to his face.

He sought compensation of $695 for damage to the victim’s car and $535 for damage to the victim’s glasses which were broken.

Defence barrister David Cole said Steele was remorseful for his behaviour and had sought treatment for depression since the offence.

“(I) talked to him about the gravity of his actions and he broke down,” Mr Cole said.

He said Steele knew he could be facing prison and had lost a lot of weight and was a “shadow of himself” since the offending.

Mr Cole likened Steele’s situation while awaiting sentencing as being in “purgatory”.

He said Steele owned a furniture removal business which would fold in the event he was sentenced to serve time in prison.

Magistrate Catherine Benson accepted that Steele was “genuinely remorseful” and that there had been some aggravating behaviour by the victim towards him.

She said the victim felt the need to defend himself and said the victim’s comments heard on the dashcam were not heard by Steele.

“The comments we heard on the video, comments not heard by you, can’t be taken as a suggestion that that contributed to the (offending),” she said.

She said other aggravating factors included that the offence was in public and that the altercation caused other cars to have to stop on the road.

She gave Steele a 15 month head sentence wholly suspended for three years.

He was also ordered to pay compensation.