Career criminal who went on drug-fuelled driving bender given cannabis at age 7
A career criminal has been a 30-year drug user after his mother gave him cannabis as a seven-year-old. Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court has heard the prolific offender has 22 pages of priors as he faced court again for another appalling crime spree.
Inner South
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In a shocking case a court has heard how a 37-year-old career criminal with 22 pages of priors was introduced to drugs by his mum at the age of seven.
The addict with a three-decade habit faced Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning on nearly 40 charges relating to a drug-fuelled driving crime spree committed last year.
Timothy Carl McKinnon pleaded guilty via video link to 37 offences including several careless, drug and unlicensed driving charges, theft, drug possession, driving unregistered vehicles and multiple counts of giving a false name to police.
Many of the times he was caught illegally behind the wheel he tried to give officers the name of his twin brother because he had no licence.
The court heard he was involved in several crashes while either drug-affected or asleep and continually drove while unlicensed in unregistered trucks and cars between April last year and January this year.
In April he drove into a power pole in Mornington while drug-affected in a car with stolen plates, and he fell asleep while driving a tow truck along the Monash Freeway in Chadstone, clipping a roadworker’s vehicle.
The same month he did a petrol drive off in Keysborough in a car with stolen plates and was again caught behind the wheel of the unregistered truck in Clarinda.
In June he was again found in the same truck in Mooroolbark, and in July he was nabbed driving another car in Windsor which had drugs, paraphernalia and more stolen plates inside.
Also in July he crashed his green sedan into a power pole in Lower Plenty and was found unlicensed in a different truck in Tootgarook, as well as being seen at Moorabbin court on an unregistered motorbike.
The court heard McKinnon crashed into a taxi in East Melbourne in December and left the scene, and was finally nabbed in Elsternwick on January 14 trying to steal number plates and was remanded on outstanding warrants.
His defence lawyer said he had problems with drugs most of his life after he was first given cannabis at the age of seven by his mum because he was “rambunctious” as a child.
In 2011 the then mechanic had an accident causing a serious injury to his back and had to give up work, and he hasn’t been employed since.
He said last year was “tumultuous” for McKinnon, who has spent much of the last decade homeless and living in his car, as his mum had died and his father was killed in a car accident.
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Magistrate Stephen Lee said there was a “whole mixed bag of offending here”, and McKinnon really needed help to combat his addiction.
“He started (drug use) at the age of seven, he’s now 37, he’s had a 30-year drug habit,” Mr Lee said.
“He was in several accidents, repeatedly drove on drugs and it is fortunate no-one was injured.
“He needs support, I am concerned about him getting off drugs, he needs to make better decisions around driving.”
He said he would have McKinnon assessed for a community corrections order and indicated he would likely release him on time served of 101 days.