Watanobbi: man jailed for crashing stolen milk/doughnut truck into house
A DRUNK five times over the limit who stole a doughnut and milk delivery truck from a 7-Eleven service station before ploughing into a house causing $275,000 damage has been jailed for a minimum of 12 months.
A DRUNK five times over the limit who stole a doughnut and milk delivery truck from a 7-Eleven service station before ploughing into a house causing $275,000 damage has been jailed for a minimum of 12 months.
Matthew James Holland had been out of jail for little over a month after serving four years for robbery, reckless wounding and car theft when he got on the booze.
He knew he had a problem with alcohol and drugs.
Holland told his mum he was back on the drink, he also told his parole officer.
Unemployed and with a young son to his long-term partner, Holland knew he had to get clean or he was going back to jail.
He booked himself into the Salvo’s Dooralong Transformation Centre but there was a two-month wait so he found himself at the club, a slave to alcohol.
“I had quite a lot, I had been drinking all day at the club and finished off a cask of wine by myself, I drank way too much,” he told Gosford District Court during his sentencing hearing.
“I definitely need to get off the drink.”
It was 10.50pm on July 27, 2017 and in his inebriated state saw a 10-tonne Pantech delivery truck with the engine still running parked at the 7-Eleven service station at Wyong.
He got in and the owner, who was delivering doughnuts and milk, approached the passenger side to ask him what he was doing.
“Give me your phone,” Holland asked the truck owner, who replied he did not have one.
“Go inside rob money and phone I want to go home,” Holland told the driver.
A set of agreed facts tendered in court reveal Holland revved the engine for several minutes before he sped off with crates falling out of the open back doors.
He managed to make it as far as the roundabout of the Pacific Highway and Britannia Ave some 700m away.
The truck’s GPS system would later reveal the 26-year-old was travelling 87km/h in a 70km/h zone when he tried to negotiate the roundabout and lost control.
The truck rolled and spun backwards as it careered down an embankment and through the rear fences of two properties on Gleneagle Place.
“During impact the offender was thrown through the windscreen,” the fact read.
The truck slammed into the rear bedroom of one house but luckily two residents were in another room.
Holland was found drifting in and out of consciousness under a pile of debris and was flown to hospital where he underwent multiple surgeries to insert plates in his face, head and treated for a fractured spine.
Checks revealed he was an L-plater who’s licence was disqualified in 2014 for six months and he had never bothered to renew it.
A blood sample taken at hospital returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.252 — more than five times the limit.
He told the court he felt terrible about what he did and “would not be able to live with himself” if he had killed someone.
“I nearly killed myself,” he said.
“I need all the help I need to stop drinking and doing stupid stuff.”
He pleaded guilty to car theft, drink-driving, driving without a licence and destroying property with $250,000 damage done to the house, $15,000 to the truck and $10,000 to the house next door.
Judge Tanya Bright sentenced him to two years jail with a non-parole period of one year.
Splash of vino, darl?: Car thief locked up after wine text bungle
A serial offender with more than 50 prior charges broke into a popular pub and stole thousands of bucks worth of booze before foolishly texting his lady a pic – asking if she was keen for a drop.
Alleged dog shooter ‘likely’ to plead guilty: Court
A man who allegedly robbed an elderly couple in their motorhome before shooting their dog with an air rifle is ‘likely’ to plead guilty, a court has heard.