Illawarra Reintegration Centre inmate Sunjay Dayal hit with extra jail time after bungled escape attempt
An Illawarra inmate who fled custody in a taxi to meet up with his girlfriend has been slapped with extra jail time.
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A prisoner who fled custody while on day release at Mt Keira, sparking a large scale search across the state, has had extra time slapped on his current jail sentence.
Sunjay Dayal, 34, faced Wollongong Local Court via audiovisual link from Lithgow Correctional Centre for sentencing on Tuesday, just weeks after he fled a work program and caught a taxi to western Sydney to meet up with his girlfriend.
At the time of his bungled escape on July 17, Dayal was serving a sentence related to an assault at the Illawarra Reintegration Centre in Unanderra.
According to police facts tendered to the court, Dayal had been selected to take part in a work program at Mount Keira Scout Camp, where he and 10 other inmates were tasked to complete maintenance and landscaping work.
Dayal presented at the morning muster after a couple of hours work at the camp, but failed to appear at the 11.30am muster, sparking a multi-agency search for the missing prisoner.
Police arrived at Mt Keira around 12pm to look for the prisoner, but Dayal was long gone, having made off with $640 he found in an office at the scout camp.
After snatching the cash, Dayal ran down Mount Keira to a nearby home, where he asked the resident to call him a cab, telling them his ute had broken down.
When the cab arrived, Dayal asked the driver to take him to a service station in Casula, a ride that cost him $200.
Here he met up with his partner Leanne Curtis, and the pair spent the night together in a nearby hotel before heading to Coffs Harbour where they were arrested and charged by police the following day.
During the court appearance on Tuesday, Dayal’s defence lawyer Ron Davis told Magistrate Roger Clisdell his client had escaped custody after receiving news his partner was unwell.
“He’d just discovered his partner had attempted suicide and that’s why he tried to escape,” Mr Davis said. “He had travelled to Casula in an attempt [to get to her].”
Magistrate Clisdell said while Dayal may have escaped to support his partner, it was no excuse in the eyes of the law.
“One thing that’s been made clear is that personal crisis or family crisis are no excuse for escaping lawful custody and cannot mitigate the sentence,” he said.
Dayal was sentenced on two charges on Tuesday, including larceny and attempting to escape lawful custody, to which he plead guilty.
Dayal was eligible for parole in January, but due to his escape attempts, Magistrate Clisdell imposed a non-parole period of 18-months on Dayal’s current sentence, making him eligible for release in July 2021.
Curtis remains behind bars for her alleged role in Dayal’s, having pleaded not guilty to knowingly harbouring, maintaining or employing an escaped inmate. Her matter will return to court next week.
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