Jake Leslie Charles Albrecht was speeding on footpath ‘for fun’ when he crashed into a power pole
The 22-year-old learner driver thought it would be ‘fun’ to drive on the footpath until he crashed into a power pole, injuring his passenger.
Toowoomba
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A 22-year-old man who crashed his car into a power pole injuring his passenger after deliberately speeding on the footpath “for fun” has been sentenced to a jail term.
Jake Leslie Charles Albrecht and a female friend had driven to Picnic Point in another friend’s car on the night of July 11 where they drank a number of alcoholic beverages, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told.
On the way home at about 1am, Albrecht decided to mount the Stenner St footpath “for fun” and drive at about 60km/h, police prosecutor Anita Page told the court.
However, at the Pelican Drive intersection, the 22-year-old lost control of the car which sped across the road and into a power pole at such force that the car’s front wheel was embedded in the power pole, Ms Page said.
Police arrived to find the woman lying on the footpath being treated by Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics and Albrecht standing nearby, she said.
Albrecht, who was on a learner licence and subject to a zero alcohol reading, returned a breath/alcohol reading of 0.065, the court was told.
He made full admissions to police, telling them the car was not his but he had permission to drive it and that he had drunk about nine Carlton Dry beers between 7pm and 10pm, conceding what he had done was “stupid”, Ms Page said.
Albrecht pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, driving above the zero alcohol limit but not over the middle alcohol while on a learner licence and driving unsupervised by a licensed driver.
His solicitor Charles Lumsden said his client and his female friend had been drinking at Picnic Point that night and playing on the flying fox.
He said the woman fell from that flying fox and suggested she had been injured in that incident before the car crash.
Albrecht was on probation from the District Court for different matters but that expired this week, he said.
Magistrate Louise Shephard accepted Albrecht had co-operated with police and made full admissions which was a mitigating factor at sentence.
However, the offending was very serious, she said.
Ms Shephard sentenced Albrecht to nine months in jail but ordered he be released on immediate parole and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for nine months.
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Originally published as Jake Leslie Charles Albrecht was speeding on footpath ‘for fun’ when he crashed into a power pole
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