Gold Coast man Andrew Ian Lane faces court after trying to mow down terrified bystanders

A man has faced court over a terrifying incident where he tried to hit innocent bystanders with his car in the car park of a Gold Coast shopping centre.

Andrew Ian Lane, 28, (right) leaves Southport Magistrates Court with defence solicitor Jason Jacobson of Jacobson Mahoney Lawyers. Picture: JODIE CALLCOTT.

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A GOLD Coast dad terrified concerned bystanders when he drove at four people, including a pregnant woman, at a shopping centre car park and tried to mow them down, a court has heard.

Andrew Ian Lane had spent about five hours at a Pimpama pub in the lead up to the frightening 11pm incident on August 14.

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday to public nuisance, dangerous operation of a vehicle, driving under the influence and failing to provide a specimen as required.

Witnesses told police they saw the tradie drive a Mazda ute over witch’s hats and into a Hungry Jacks drive thru, rev his engine and yell: “Where’s my beer?”.

They watched as Lane drove over several Pimpama City Shopping Centre car park garden beds before they approached him to offer help.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Daniel McShane said Lane started yelling and threatening to assault the witnesses “for no apparent reason”.

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He said as they walked away Lane intentionally drove at two people, including a pregnant woman.

“They had to take evasion action. Once he missed them, he drove at another two witnesses,” Snr Const McShane said. “All of them then run to the Coles Express in an attempt to retreat from the vehicle.

“The defendant stopped in the Zarraffas (Coffee) carpark and left the car and headlights on and walked towards the service station.

“He started bashing on the glass sliding doors to get to the witnesses.”

Police arrested Lane outside the service station about 30 minutes later.

The court was told he was slurring his words, smelt of liquor and was unable to stand unassisted. He also refused to give police a sample of his breath.

Defence solicitor Jason Jacobson, of Jacobson Mahony Lawyers, said his client was “bitterly disappointed and utterly ashamed” of his behaviour.

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Mr Jacobson said Lane was not coping with bad news about his daughter’s health and turned to alcohol to deal with the stress.

He said Lane left the family home at 6.30pm after telling his partner he was going to the gym but instead went to the pub.

“He doesn’t have a very clear memory but accepts and worries it’s not the first time he has used alcohol to deal with his stress and black out,” Mr Jacobson said. “But it was a real wake up call to the dangers when he read what he had done … he is a person that comes here with deep remorse.”

Magistrate Michelle Dooley took into account Lane’s limited Queensland and New South Wales criminal and traffic history and the steps he took after the incident.

Ms Dooley told Lane it appeared he was under “a great deal of stress at the time”, however, it was time to take responsibility.

“Putting members of the public in potentially an unsafe position … people who were obviously trying to assist you, your behaviour was very unsafe.”

He was sentenced to 18 months probation, disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined $200. A conviction was not recorded.

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