Harold John Lake sentenced in Toowoomba District Court for dangerous operation of a vehicle

After snatching a bag of ice from an acquaintance, a southwest Queensland man tried to flee in his car. It was what happened next that landed him before a judge.

A drug deal gone wrong could have been deadly after a man was thrown from the speeding vehicle driven by a friend who had just stolen a bag of ice from him.

About 9pm on April 24 last year, Charleville man Harold John Lake went to the home of a friend to buy a small amount of methylamphetamine, but had decided not to pay for it and had snatched the drugs from his friend, Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher told Toowoomba District Court.

As Lake attempted to flee from the house, the man grabbed on to the vehicle and tried to get in.

The court was told that in a short space of time, Lake hit speeds of up to 70km/h before the man was flung from the vehicle and Lake spun out of control, which was captured on a neighbour’s home security camera.

“The manner of driving that led to the car spinning out was in very close proximity to where (the man) was ejected from the car,” Ms Fletcher said.

Lake then fled from the scene, and when police attempted to arrest him the following day he tried to flee again, jumping over his neighbour’s fence before he was taken into custody.

The 23-year-old faced court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failing to remain at the scene of a crash, obstruct police and trespass, as well as a host of other driving offences including driving an uninsured and unregistered vehicle, as well as driving unsupervised on a learner’s licence.

Ms Fletcher said the other man’s injuries were relatively minor given the circumstances of the incident, and after he was flown to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane for cuts, lacerations and a bleed on the spleen he checked himself out after three days.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said while Lake only drove a short distance, his driving was extremely dangerous and he did not stop to check on the man who was thrown from his vehicle.

“Fortunately for you his injuries were not as serious as they could have been, quite frankly you could have killed him,” he said.

“That exact same driving could have ended with a different result and this would have been a very different sentencing exercise.”

Noting the father of two planned on reuniting with his mother in Roma upon his release, and that Lake had spent some nine months in pre-sentence custody, Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Lake to 12 months jail, suspended after 215 days to take into account time already served, for an operation period of 18 months.

Lake was also placed on 12 months probation and disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for a total of six months.

Originally published as Harold John Lake sentenced in Toowoomba District Court for dangerous operation of a vehicle