Newtown woman Leanne June Oberhardt, 43, sentenced for dangerous operation of vehicle

A 43-year-old mother was found hiding under a tree by a police dog squad after she racked up her second dangerous operation of vehicle offence in three years.

The behaviour of a 43-year-old mother-of-nine who left an innocent driver injured and abandoned after a drug-fuelled crash in a stolen car, has been put down to a “midlife crisis” by a dumbfounded magistrate.

Newtown woman Leanne June Oberhardt pleaded guilty to five charges when she appeared at Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Friday (June 17).

They included dangerously operating a vehicle, unlawfully using a vehicle, receiving tainted property and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

The court heard the Ipswich woman was on a cocktail of drugs when on December 3 she failed to slow at the intersection of Reserve Rd and Argonaut St, Slacks Creek and crashed into a blue vehicle.

Its driver suffered minor injuries and confirmed to police she had no time to react.

According to police, two other witnesses confirmed the same sequence of events.

A heavily drug-affected Oberhardt escaped through a window of her stolen red Holden Cruz and ran from the scene with accomplices.

Tests would confirm she had methamphetamine, amphetamine, diazepam (Valium) and nordiazepam in her system.

A police dog squad eventually found her hiding under a tree in Woodridge.

The court heard she had suffered injuries to her head and verbally abused responding officers.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Stephen Cochrane said Oberhardt’s offending was aggravated for occurring while on parole for using a stolen vehicle and burglary.

It was made worse still for following a previous offence of dangerous operation of a vehicle in 2018.

Defence solicitor Vered Turner said her client had five children with special needs and planned to return to them in Rockhampton.

Ms Turner noted Oberhardt had spent 191 days in pre-sentence custody.

Reference letters from family members were tendered to the court.

A perplexed magistrate Tracy Mossop surmised a midlife crisis may have struck the defendant.

“I don’t know if you had a midlife crisis at 40 and made some bad decisions but it seems to be the case when you look at your (criminal) history,” Ms Mossop said.

Oberhardt was sentenced to 12 months’ prison wholly suspended for 18 months.

A total 191 days pre-sentence custody was taken into account.

For driving while SPER and court suspended she was disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Should she drive within that time Oberhardt would be “looking at jail”, the court heard.