Dean Charles Harris: roofer sentenced for Tweed Heads road rage incident

A knife-wielding northern NSW roofer was involved in a childish road rage incident in which soft drink cans and lunchboxes went flying, leaving a teen witness so terrified she ran a red light to escape and crashed.

A Banora Point roofer who slashed a man’s tyre after a wild road rage incident in front of terrified onlookers has narrowly avoided full time jail.

Dean Charles Harris, 37, pleaded guilty in Tweed Heads Local Court on Wednesday to intentionally menacing someone with a vehicle, using an offensive weapon to commit an indictable offence and destroying or damaging property.

Papers tendered to Tweed Heads Local Court reveal the victim was driving a white Commodore on the motorway near Tugun on December 21, 2020 when he saw Harris driving directly behind him.

Due to the closeness the victim accelerated and moved across a lane before slowing down before the pair continued to overtake each other up to the highway exit at Minjungbal Dr.

The childish competition deteriorated at the Sextons Hill turn-off as Harris threw a soft drink can at the victim and the victim hurled back a lunchbox which hit Harris’ car.

Harris then overtook the victim once again on Minjungbal Dr, forcing the victim to brake harshly to avoid a crash.

Dean Harris was involved in a road rage incident near the Tweed City Shopping Centre.

The victim reached heavy traffic outside Tweed City Shopping Centre near Blundell Boulevard when Harris parked outside Cool-A-Bah air-conditioning.

Harris then left his car, grabbed a stanley knife and walked towards the victim inside his car onto Minjungbal Dr, threatening to “flog” him and slash his tyre.

When Harris was unable to open the victim’s car door, he slashed the rear tyre, leaving a 17-year-old teen female driver so terrified she ran through a red light and crashed in her efforts to get away from the knife-wielding man.

In court Harris’s lawyer said both drivers were engaging in behaviour that “wasn’t sensible.”

The defence asked the court to consider that his client had only damaged property as opposed to causing any physical harm.

Dean Charles Harris was sentenced in Tweed Heads Local Court.

He said at the time he had been working on a hot metal roof during the day and had just found out his partner had a brain tumour.

“The complainant took up the wrong person on the wrong day,” the defence said.

Magistrate Geoff Dunlevy said Harris was reluctant to accept his misconduct had resulted in the serious car crash.

“Of course she is going to try and get away from you when you arm yourself,” Mr Dunlevy said.

“To not be able to connect all of those dots is just appalling - you’re reluctant to accept any degree of culpability.

“Quite frankly you took this too far, all of this is your fault.”

Harris was sentenced to a 16-month intensive corrections order with 100 hours’ community service and a 12-month driving disqualification.