Ben William Hall, Laiq Hussain Turi, David Ladd, and Beau Hewat face Victorian courts

Truck drivers, often referred to as the lifeline of transportation, have recently been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. These truckies have faced courts in recent weeks.

Some of the truck drivers who’ve faced Victorian courts in recent weeks.

Truck drivers, often referred to as the lifeline of transportation, have recently been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Here’s some of Victoria’s truckies who’ve faced courts in recent weeks.

Hoon hits police car during Bendigo driving craziness

Echuca truck driver Ben William Hall faced court after performing burnouts on the streets of Bendigo in May 2022. Photo: Facebook

In a shocking hooning episode in Bendigo, truck driver Ben Hall collided with a police car.

Ben William Hall, a 28-year-old former truck driver from Echuca, attended a car enthusiasts event on Mundy St.

The next day, Hall performed a burnout “across all lanes” of McCrae St while another man held a Mexican flag out the vehicle’s window.

Two nearby police officers attended the scene in a marked car.

Hall did an even larger burnout, coming into proximity with onlookers.

His car then collided with the front driver’s side of the police vehicle, but Hall continued hooning even with a blown-out tyre.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated recklessly exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving and to conduct endangering life.

Man caught with meth while driving unlicensed

Laiq Hussain Turi, a truck driver from Pakistan, has attributed his drug usage to the traumatic experiences he endured during his time in Taliban-controlled regions.

Police pulled over the blue Holden Commodore vehicle Turi was driving on Benalla Rd in Shepparton just after 1am on August 5, 2022.

They discovered Turi’s licence was disqualified and there was a “strong smell of cannabis” coming from the car.

Laiq Turi pleaded guilty at the Shepparton Magistrates' Court.

Police then searched the 40-year-old’s vehicle and found a ziplock bag containing more than 15g of cannabis in his pocket, a large plastic bag containing cannabis weighing more than 300g and scales.

The court heard Turi was arrested and interviewed by police, who made full admissions to the offences.

Turi’s lawyer Cameron Gauld told the court the 40-year-old from Pakistan arrived in Australia in 2010 and was a truck driver until he was 27.

The court heard in the years of 2009 and 2010, the Taliban had attacked the Pakistan border, where he was living with his family.

Mr Gauld said Turi was trapped for two or three days and witnessed several truck drivers get “executed” in front of him and said Turi’s brother-in-law was also killed during the invasion.

Illiterate Mildura truck driver’s ‘deluded’ attitude towards woman he raped

A “remorseless” truck driver will spend at least three years behind bars for raping a woman after he gave her a lift from Melbourne to his Mildura home.

David Ladd, 54, has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault by a jury in Melbourne.

Judge Kevin Doyle said Ladd had never admitted to any wrongdoing and had not shown any insight into his offending.

Ladd raped the woman in March 2019, after agreeing to collect her in Melbourne and give her a lift to Mildura.

The woman had been in a relationship with another man who lived in Mildura and the couple had made arrangements to see each other.

The woman went to lay down in a bedroom at Ladd’s house, where she had stayed on a previous visit to the property, and Ladd entered the room and lay down beside her.

He allegedly produced a vibrator and pushed it against her, through her jeans, before putting his hand down her pants and penetrating her with a finger.

He also put his hands inside the woman’s top and rubbed her.

Judge Doyl convicted and sentenced Ladd to five years’ and four months’ jail, with a non-parole period of three years and two months.

Hell’s Angels bikie’s son pleads guilty to $200k grog heist and more

In a case that unveils the intersection of criminal networks and truck drivers, the son of a notorious Hell’s Angels bikie gang member has pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $200,000 alcohol heist.

Beau Hewat, son of Hells Angel enforcer Peter ‘Skitzo’ Hewat. Picture: Supplied

Beau Hewat, 33, whose father is Peter “Skitzo” Hewat, fronted Melbourne’s County Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and two charges of recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime.

He kicked off his light-fingered crime spree in April 2020, when he stole $75,000 worth of booze, following it up in December of the same year when he stole two Australia Post trailers loaded with parcels in Somerton valued at $50,000.

The court previously Hewat head hooked up a B-double trailer containing 30 pallets of Jack Daniels and cola pre-mixed slabs to his truck at a secure depot in Laverton North before driving off in the early hours on July 10, 2021.

The Mickleham father-of-two, who runs a heavy haulage transport company, then offloaded the booze at an associate’s factory in Somerton.