Cairns stolen cars: Police warn of more deaths in Far North juvenile crime wave

A senior cop says more lives will be lost on Far North roads as vigilantes admit to “adrenaline pumping” chases with kiddie crooks. See how many have been arrested.

POLICE are working through their days off and a civilian helicopter has been deployed as children in stolen cars ram emergency service vehicles and cause chaos on Cairns streets.

Dozens of kids have been arrested on hundreds of property offence charges the Cairns crime crisis escalates.

Stolen cars across the city have smashed into civilian-owned cars and have been driven at emergency service vehicles in a weekend of mayhem on the streets of Cairns.

In the past week, police have arrested 49 people on a total of 306 property related offences.

And in four days to Monday officers arrested 28 people on a total of 222 property charges.

In the same time frame 18 stolen cars have been recovered.

According to police data of the 28 arrests made, 23 were juveniles.

In the past week Cairns police have arrested 49 people on a total of 306 property related offences. Picture: Facebook

Inspector Kevin Goan described the latest spate of crime plaguing the city to be “significant”.

“We have applied the Bail Act in our considerations of those persons entering the justice process. And we currently have eight persons in custody for their offending over that four day period,” he said.

A police spokeswoman revealed eight children are currently detained in the Cairns watch house.

An early model Mitsubishi Lancer crashed into a power pole on Anderson St last week and was towed from the scene by Barron River Towing. According to police the car was not reported stolen at the time of the crash however the driver of the vehicle was seen stumbling from the crash site soon after 8am. Picture: Peter Carruthers

Kids dicing with death on the roads in alleged stolen vehicles presented a serious risk to everyday citizens.

Insp Goan said a major concern for police led to the sourcing of extra officers to combat a weekend crime wave.

“There were a number of civilian vehicles rammed over the last four days, there were police vehicles also rammed by these young people in (alleged) stolen vehicles,” he said.

“We’ve had reports that these vehicles have been driven at ambulance officers, that they’ve been driven at Queensland Fire and Emergency Services officers as well.

“It’s extremely concerning their manner of driving and their willingness to put others at risk that’s created a situation where we brought in additional resources to respond and bring young offenders into custody in a timely manner.

“People terminating shifts were held and we had people that voluntarily gave up days off to come in.”

A white Toyota Camry reported stolen at the weekend seen driving on Mulgrave Road on Sunday. Picture: Changing Cairns Crime Problems

Angry Cairns residents fed up with 983 cars stolen in the past 268 days have zip tied posters to Cairns city light posts calling on MPs to take action.

And in an online claim sighted by the Cairns Post one vigilante stated he chased an alleged stolen Volkswagen past Coles in Edmonton.

“They were sh**ting themselves when I told them to pull over and was going to flog them,” the man wrote.

Car on fire at Earlville last week. Picture: Cairns Crimes and Alerts Facebook Page, Karen Cross.

“Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction, adrenaline is still pumping, wish I caught them.”

But vigilantes taking the law into their own hands by ramming alleged stolen cars and beating up car thieves has been strongly condemned by police.

“The last thing we want to see is people taking these matters into their own hands,” Insp Goan said.

“They are not exculpated from the law, they will be prosecuted if they engage, albeit well-meaning. If they do engage in a policing action of their own volition, then it’s likely that they will be prosecuted.”

Messages calling out Far North MPs have appeared throughout the Cairns CBD is response to almost 1000 cars stolen since the start of the year. Picture: Peter Carruthers

Insp Goan confirmed the use of a civilian helicopter at the weekend due to the Rescue 510 being unavailable.

Given the scale of the stolen car epidemic vehicle Insp Goan said he expected more serious road crashes.

“Where you have the number of young people involved, the number of young people who are inexperienced drivers … using, or abusing substances.

“The numbers say that we will experience more tragedy in our community,” he said.

Follow @petercarruther1

Originally published as Cairns stolen cars: Police warn of more deaths in Far North juvenile crime wave