Byron Gestos: Man charged for throwing cement blocks on M1

Cars travelling at 110km an hour were lucky not to crash after taking evasive action to avoid hitting the blocks of cement on the M1.

A number of motorists narrowly avoided disaster while travelling 110km/h on the M1 when a man started firing cement blocks onto the road.

Byron Gestos, 42, pleaded guilty in Tweed Heads Local Court on Monday to drink driving, throwing objects at vehicles risking safety, aggravated depositing of litter and custody of a knife.

According to police facts Gestos was seen standing on the ramp overpass of Sextons Hill and Minjungbal Drive, which extends over the M1, on March 3 at 11.37am where he has taken a large chunk of concrete the size of a basketball from a nearby retaining wall.

Gestos then threw the concrete onto the highway where a man was travelling at 110km/h on his way to assist people in the flood affected areas.

This forced the driver to take extreme evasive action by veering into another lane.

Fortunately there was no one in the other lane.

Gestos then collected the concrete block, and walked back to the overpass and threw it again.

Police attended at 11.45am where they found Gestos walking toward Minjungbal Drive - he appeared moderately affected by alcohol.

When he was arrested he said “I don’t know what you are talking about, I did nothing.” and began to pray and rant.

He told police “let me go, I’ll bash your heads in”.

He was searched and police found two knives, one stanley style and a scissors.

Two weeks earlier Gestos had been caught drive driving when his car was found stuck in grass beside the M1 at Chinderah about 3.40am on February 16.

He recorded a reading of 0.084.

Defence lawyer Phil Mulherin said his client had acted out of character.

He said Gestos, originally from Keiraville near Wollongong, had moved to the Tweed and become homeless.

Mr Mulherin told the court Gestos’s friends had taken advantage of him, he’d had all his cards stolen and his car which he’d been living in was destroyed in the floods.

He said at the time he was consuming a lot of alcohol and did not recall throwing the concrete blocks.

Gestos was convicted and sentenced to an 18 month community corrections order.