Former model Savannah McKay pleads guilty to careless driving

A former top model who claims she once worked alongside tennis legend Pat Rafter ran off the road in the middle of Abbotsford, ploughing into a number of tram posts and a bench.

Savannah McKay pleaded guilty to driving carelessly after she ran off the road in Abbotsford.

A former high-flying model who claimed to have worked alongside Samara Weaving and Pat Rafter drove off the road in the middle of Abbotsford before refusing a blood sample.

Savannah McKay, 28, had posed alongside Aussie celebreties in glossy photo shoots before her drug habit derailed her career.

The former model appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after she ran off the road in Abbotsford while driving a white Mitsubishi and crashed into several Yarra tram posts, a council bin and a tram seat bench.

No one was injured as McKay tore off the road at 7.14am on February 9, 2022.

In a summary read to the court, it was heard the weather and driving conditions were fine.

When she was arrested by police, the former top-flight model told them she thought she had either hit an animal, or her rear tyre had blown out.

Savannah McKay pleaded guilty to careless driving after she ran off the road in Richmond.

She also wasn’t displaying P-plates when she was arrested, telling police the car was a rental and she had lost her wallet and that’s why they were not displayed.

McKay, who claimed to work with tennis legend Pat Rafter, returned a negative preliminary breath test but did not let anyone take a sample of her blood due to a “phobia of needles”, the court heard.

McKay pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle carelessly, failing to display P-plates and refusing to allow a doctor to take a sample of blood.

McKay, who turned up to court well after lunch, was dressed stylishly in a white dress, a beige coat and wore glasses.

McKay turned up to court well after lunch after missing numerous court hearings in the past.

McKay narrowly avoided jail last year after pleading guilty to a raft of drug-related charges dating back to November 2020, having spent 61 non-consecutive days on remand at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

McKay told the court she grew up in the Prahran commission flats and was told to leave home at 15 by her mother who was a “heroin addict” with a criminal history.

McKay was fined $850 without conviction for running off the road and her licence was cancelled.

Magistrate Timothy Bourke said McKay would be assessed for a community corrections order (CC) on April 17 after she was found breaching her initial CCO.
Mr Bourke told McKay “get away from the criminal justice system … You’re what 28?... You are young”.

“Me helping you might see you help yourself.”