Denley Russell Clarke sentenced for dangerous operation and burglary charges

A former army soldier was on parole when he botched his burglary plan by breaking his overloaded car with heavy stolen items from a Noosa construction site.

Denley Russell Clarke was sentenced in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday to two and a half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a string of 22 charges. Picture: Social media.

A former soldier who drove directly at a police car in an effort to escape botched his burglary plan when he broke the axle of his car after loading too many stolen items, a court has heard.

Denley Russell Clarke was sentenced in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday to two-and-a-half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a string of 22 charges including two counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle and entering a premise to commit an indictable offence.

The court heard Clarke was on parole when he attempted to steal $7700 of flooring from a Noosa Heads construction site on March 20.

“You broke into the building site and tried to take boxes of flooring away so much so that you over loaded your vehicle and broke the axle,” Magistrate Katherine Benson said.

Clarke caused $640 in damage while breaking into the site.

Between December, 18 2020 and December, 28 2020 Clarke also smashed the glass door of a Nanango home and stole coins off a table and carpet squares that he had bleed on.

Ms Benson said Clarke was trying to escape police on two occasions in April when he dangerously drove a stolen car.

“When police activated their lights and sirens you … accelerated heavily through a red light turned onto Blackall Terrace and travelled onto the wrong side of the road up a hill and around a blind corner causing other vehicles to take evasive action,” she said.

Ms Benson said Clarke had tried to outrun and hide from police on the second occasion while driving at night without his lights on when police were forced to avoid a collision with him.

“When they discovered you did a U-turn and turned your vehicle towards them and drove at speed directly at the marked police vehicle,” she said.

A stolen car driven by Clarke was also found burnt out and completely destroyed by police.

Ms Benson said Clarke’s 12-page criminal history was littered with similar offences and he was already serving a four-and-a-half year sentence after his parole was revoked.

Police prosecutor Mark Burrell said the community needed to be protected from Clarke, who he described as a “menace to society”.

Senior Constable Burrell suggested a sentence between 2.5-3 years to be served at the end of his current sentence was appropriate for the burglary offences.

He also suggested nine to 12 months for the dangerous driving offences.

Solicitor Anna Smith asked for a sentence of two years on the enter premises charges to be added to the end of his current sentence.

She also asked nine to 12 months for the dangerous operations charges.

Ms Smith also asked for a parole eligibility date to be brought forward as early as today to ensure a crushing sentence was not imposed.

“That would give him potentially over another two years in custody and I say that because his prospects of attaining parole are remote,” she said.

Ms Smith said Clarke’s offending was mostly “unsophisticated and opportunistic”.

“In terms of the value that was stolen for both enter the premises it’s at the lower end of the scale,” she said.

She said Clarke finished high school with an OP 4 and was a smart man who spent five years in the army where he was introduced to drugs.

Ms Smith said drugs played a huge roll in derailing the father of one’s life.

The court heard Clarke had taken part in limited drug rehabilitation and struggled to comply with long parole periods, meaning he would be likely to spend majority of his prison sentence in custody.

Ms Benson disagreed that Clarke’s offending was on the lower end of the scale and said the dangerous driving charges were very serious.

She said his offending was also worsened by his terrible criminal history of similar offences.

Given Clarke was on parole at the time of the offending the two-and-a-half year prison sentence was added to the end of his current sentence.

His full time release date was moved to July 15, 2025 and he was given a parole eligibility date of May 16, 2023.

Ms Benson said she had considered the time Clarke was already serving.

Clarke was disqualified from driving for six months on each dangerous driving charge.