Police officer beaten, multiple arrests made in Mermaid Waters after luxury car theft
A police officer was attacked by a teenage girl while investigating a stolen luxury car in an affluent area of the Gold Coast, with several arrests made.
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A police officer investigating a stolen vehicle in an up-market Gold Coast suburb has been attacked by a teenage girl.
And a state MP, who last week warned Parliament of escalating violence from kid criminals, says the assault was another example of the failure of Labor’s weak laws on juvenile offenders.
A police spokesperson said the car theft had occurred in Brisbane after a Norman Park resident had advertised his Audi for sale on Gumtree and Facebook.
On June 19 the suspects took the vehicle for a test drive and never returned it, the spokeperson said.
Seven days later the stolen vehicle was spotted in various locations, including the Coast, and was later found parked in Compass St, Mermaid Waters around 9.50pm on Wednesday.
“Police attended an address and arrested a man and woman. A 15-year-old girl allegedly assaulted an officer by striking him in the face during the arrest,” the police spokesperson said.
The officer is understood to have sustained minor injuries.
Police have charged a 30-year-old Mermaid Waters man with several counts including stealing. A 21-year-old Mermaid Waters resident also faces several drug charges.
A 15-year-old girl from Maroochydore will appear in the Children’s Court after being charged with assaulting a police officer.
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, in State Parliament last week, warned about residents taking action against youth gangs in his electorate.
“I have one community in Avanti St that have repeated and constant attacks on their property and yet the police are no closer to stopping this regular behaviour by juvenile offenders,” he said.
“One juvenile offender was caught red-handed by residents, and I am fearful of a vigilante-type outcome if this non-stop invasion of car stealing continues.”
Mr Stevens on Monday was appalled to learn of the latest incident. He again focused on Labor’s poor sentencing laws.
“All these youths were at a party and a copper was beat up,” Mr Stevens said.
“This is just how out of control this crime wave of youth offenders has become. This is horrendous. Who beats up a copper. It’s the laws at fault, not the copper.”
‘Caught red-handed’: Vigilantes take on kiddie car thieves
Residents fed up with youth gangs stealing cars caught and bashed a youth while others wanted to confront a “druggie” checking their street, sparking fears about vigilante groups.
The Bulletin can reveal the car theft crime wave has reached a flashpoint, with:
* a kid caught stealing a car in Mermaid Waters physically confronted by residents.
* a man threatening to remove a “druggie” near Pacific Fair after police failed to arrive.
* fed-up residents in many suburbs calling security firms to patrol their homes.
* youths now entering homes for car keys to unlock hi-tech vehicles parked outside.
* residents furious seeing kindergarten crooks on Facebook taking pictures of stolen vehicles.
Community leaders were frustrated when Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll this month told a Brisbane radio station that cops knew the juveniles doing the most offending, yet the crisis was worsening.
“Our greatest challenge is this really tough group of young people, that 10 per cent that are committing around 48 per cent of the crime,” Ms Carroll told the station.
“That’s about 400 youth across the state. We know these people, we interact with these people all the time. They have been the ones that have been relentlessly offending.”
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens told State Parliament: “I have one community in Avanti Street that have repeated and constant attacks on their property and yet the police are no closer to stopping this regular behaviour by juvenile offenders.
“One juvenile offender was caught red-handed by residents, and I am fearful of a
vigilante-type outcome if this non-stop invasion of car-stealing continues.”
Police this month appealed for help to solve an armed robbery at Quayside Drive in Helensvale in which two women were approached by a man with a gun, and their car stolen.
A police source said: “Now the cars have so many anti-locking devices. They have to enter the home. At Helensvale, the car was taken at gunpoint.
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“The vigilante-type situation will lead to confrontation. Any force they use to detain a person has to be reasonable. If you overstep the boundaries legally, you will find yourself in court before the thief.”
Mr Stevens called for tougher laws after a teenage driver jailed for the killing of a Brisbane couple was sentenced to 10 years’ jail but could be released after six years.
The 18-year-old was drunk and drug-affected when the stolen car he was driving struck and killed Kate Leadbetter, 31, Matthew Field, 37, and their unborn child on Australia Day 2021.
The Attorney-General is appealing. A petition to Parliament has almost 54,000 signatures.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that if there is no penalty for this serious misbehaviour, these recidivist juvey offenders will keep doing the same crime over and over,” Mr Stevens told Parliament.
“How would Premier Palaszczuk like it if someone in her family was run down and killed
like the Field and Leadbetter families by a career criminal kid?
“That family has a lifetime sentence while the career criminal kid is back on the streets in five years.
“The very simple answer is a change in the Labor government’s laws on youth justice to remove repeat offenders from our communities.”
On Tuesday, Police Minister Mark Ryan said record funding of more than $3bn would be invested in better policing services, including 2025 extra personnel across five years from 2020.
HOW TO STOP YOUTHS STEALING CARS ON COAST
Southport MP Rob Molhoek said the Coast had no significant policing announcements with the Treasurer only saying “the police are doing a great job”.
“He’s right, they are doing a great job, they work hard, but they are stretched,” Mr Molhoek told the Bulletin.
“Youth crime is out of control, domestic and family violence has increased and police are required to spend more time supporting mental health and ambulance services. Gold Coasters deserve better, we simply need more police in Southport, Surfers, Broadbeach, Coomera and the northern growth corridor.”
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