North Lakes hoon blames burnouts on ‘COVID and the end of the world’

COVID anxiety led a young man to lash out at police after a Westfield hooning sessions. SEE VIDEO OF HIS HOONING

“COVID and the end of the world” drove a 25-year-old Kallangur hoon to do burnouts in the car park of the North Lakes Westfield, the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court heard on Friday.

Jacob Alexander Ellis pleaded guilty to four charges at the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court.

Jacob Alexander Ellis pleaded guilty to four charges following his public meltdown, including obstructing a police officer, wilfully making unnecessary noise or smoke with a vehicle, possession of a drug utensil and failure to provide a specimen of blood for analysis.

The court heard Westfield security officers called police to assist at 10am on January 10, when they saw a young man in a Holden ute doing “a number of circular burnouts” causing significant smoke to fill the air and disrupt other shoppers.

Jacob Ellis was caught on CCTV footage doing burnouts in the Westfield carpark. He told police it was because of COVID.

Police tracked Ellis to the nearby Coles and asked him why he’d been hooning through the carpark.

According to the police prosecutor, Ellis said he did the burnout “because of COVID and the end of the world”.

When the officers made it clear they’d be pressing charges Ellis “became enraged, yelled at the police he had COVID and refused to go with (them)”.

Ellis told them he had a problem with authority.

He was dragged, kicking and screaming, back to the Pine Rivers watch house.

At court on Friday Ellis appeared sorry for his actions and explained he acted out of a combination of mounting stress, fear, anxiety and mental illness.

Jacob Ellis told the Magistrate he did the burnouts because he was 'having a bad day'. There are several other examples of burnout activity posted to his Facebook profile.

“I’m very ashamed of my actions and I won’t be here again,” Ellis said.

“I was having a really bad day.”

Ellis explained to the court he’d made several major steps to overcome his own personal hurdles and the event was a minor setback in his journey to create a solid, stable life for himself and his fiance.

Magistrate Melanie Ho warned Ellis not to self-medicate with dangerous drugs and sentenced him to six months probation.

No conviction was recorded.