Mum Ruth Tobin aims for fresh start after driving, resisting arrest sentence

A Port Macquarie mother has vowed to leave the area and start afresh after being convicted of shoplifting, reckless driving and resisting arrest.

A Port Macquarie mother has vowed to leave the area and start afresh after being convicted of shoplifting, reckless driving and resisting arrest.

Ruth Tobin, who pleaded guilty to all three offences in Port Macquarie Local Court this week, was charged with resisting police and reckless driving after an incident in the carpark of the Settlement City shopping complex at about 10.30pm on Friday, April 30 2021.

The incident occurred in the carpark of Woolworths at Settlement City in Port Macquarie.

An off-duty police officer, Senior Constable Phillips, had spotted a wanted man in the Woolworths supermarket inside the centre who was accompanied by Tobin and her ex-partner Thomas Adams.

After following the group to their vehicle, Snr Con Phillips attempted to arrest the wanted man.

After verbally threatening the officer, Tobin threw herself between him and the suspect before all three jumped into the car and drove from the carpark at high speed.

Tobin appeared at Port Macquarie Court House this week.

She was later arrested and charged.

Tobin’s solicitor Jordan Moussa told the court his client and Adams had been intending to hand the wanted male into police when they were stopped by Snr Con Phillips.

The shoplifting offence, which Adams was also charged with, came after the pair stole two trolleys of goods from Port Macquarie Aldi.

The grocery store staff were able to stop them before they loaded the products into the vehicle, with only a clothes steamer unaccounted for in the theft.

Moussa told Magistrate Georgina Darcy that his client was “not the same person your honour might have seen a year ago” and that she would be relocating to make a fresh start away from the local area.

In sentencing Tobin, Magistrate Georgina Darcy said that her separation from Adams was a step in the right direction and would assist her rehabilitation.

“I would assume that Mr Adams was a bad influence on you, as he was with you on both occasions when these offences were committed,” Ms Darcy said.

The magistrate said Tobin’s driving in the carpark was indeed reckless and could have endangered the lives of others and said Sen Con Phillips was doing his job in trying to apprehended the wanted male.

“You did the right thing in taking (the wanted male) to hand him over to police,” Ms Darcy said.

“But the off-duty police officer was merely doing his job.

“It’s important to drive carefully in carparks because you never know when a person or car will pull out in front of you – but it was a short-lived offence.”

For the reckless driving charge, Magistrate Darcy convicted Tobin, fined her $500 and suspended her licence for 12 months.

Tobin was given a community corrections order for resisting arrest and received a second $500 fine for shoplifting.