Jacob Eric Ariell pleads guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court to a total 18 offences

In a five month crime spree a 23-year-old terrorised the community, threatening another man with a hunting knife and crashing his car into an elderly man’s vehicle. See what the court did with him:

A Pittsworth man on a five-month crime spree threatened to “slice up” another driver involved in a crash, Toowoomba Magistrates Court has heard.

Jacob Eric Ariell’s crime spree stretched from February through to July when he was eventually taken into custody and from where he appeared in court via prison video link to plead guilty to 18 offences.

Among those was a two vehicle crash on February 24 which involved the 23-year-old driving on only to be pursued by the other driver, the court heard.

When he eventually pulled over, Ariell alighted from the car armed with a large hunting knife, telling the other man to “f--- off or I’ll slice you up”.

Ariell, who had been driving while disqualified at the time, was busted just four days later in an unregistered, uninsured vehicle, police prosecutor Bettina Trenear told the court.

On July 1, police who caught Ariell again driving while disqualified called on him to stop but he drove off through a stop sign and onto the wrong side of the road, forcing other motorists to take evasive action, the court heard.

On July 20, he had taken a corner too sharply and struck another vehicle driven by an elderly man.

Again he drove away but this time was pulled over and provided his name and particulars, the court was told.

In court on Tuesday Ariell pleaded guilty to all charges including dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, evading police, going armed as to cause fear, driving with meth in his system and a number of disqualified driving offences.

Magistrate Louise Shephard noted Ariell was on a two-month suspended jail sentence imposed by the Pittsworth Magistrates Court in February as well as being subject to a probation order.

“These are serious driving offences which show complete contempt for the court which told you not to drive,” Ms Shephard told Ariell.

Ms Shephard sentenced Ariell to nine months in jail but, declaring 90 days of pre-sentence custody as time served, ordered he be released on parole immediately.

Ariell was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for three years.

Originally published as Jacob Eric Ariell pleads guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court to a total 18 offences