Oliver Jameson Kirk-Gaffney in court for Bowen dirt bike offences

There was no escaping a hefty penalty for the Bowen teen who evaded police on his unregistered dirt bike.

A Bowen farm worker who fled from police at high speed on an unregistered motorbike might need to pick up some extra shifts to pay off a $7500 fine handed down in court this week.

Oliver Jameson Kirk-Gaffney, 18, faced Bowen Magistrates Court on Tuesday on five charges relating to a dirt bike police caught him riding on the outskirts of town without a licence on December 17, 2021.

The court heard police first spotted Kirk-Gaffney with the bike at a Bruce Highway service station about 11.30pm and a short time later caught him riding it home via Lower Don Rd with a female passenger on the back.

When the officers activated their vehicle’s lights and sirens in an attempt to intercept the bike, Kirk-Gaffney increased his speed and headed back towards the highway, where he continued to travel at high speed and failed to stop.

Checks revealed he held a learner’s licence to drive a car but no form of motorbike licence.

Kirk-Gaffney pleaded guilty to driving an uninsured vehicle, driving a motor vehicle without a driver’s licence and having never held a licence, an evasion offence, using an unregistered vehicle on roads.

He also pleaded guilty to contravening a direction or requirement of police by failing to attend a drug diversion program on December 5, 2021.

Defence lawyer Peta Vernon told the court her client had ridden the bike from his home to the nearby service station via scrubland on the 17th to buy food.

When he saw the lights and sirens on his return home, he “panicked and took off”, Ms Vernon said.

“Whether it’s immaturity, or there’s been some issues lately with police regularly attending the residence looking for a certain person, so the relationship with police is somewhat strained at this point in time,” she said.

Of her client’s failure to attend the drug program, Ms Vernon said it was because he suffered from dyslexia and “gets numbers and dates mixed up”.

Kirk-Gaffney told the court he had since sold his dirt bike to remove the temptation to ride it around town. Picture: Facebook

Magistrate James Morton explained that regardless of any mitigating factors, evading police was a serious offence that carried a mandatory sentence of 50 penalty units or 50 days’ jail.

Noting previous entries in Kirk-Gaffney’s traffic history relating to motorbike use on roads, Mr Morton expressed strong doubts as to the young man’s ability to stay out of trouble.

“Putting aside your inability to understand numbers, you understand what it means to comply with the law, don’t you son?” Mr Morton said.

“I’ll bet you any money that I see you again a lot of times before I retire from this court.”

Kirk-Gaffney was fined $7492.50 and was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for two years and three months.

Convictions were recorded.