Lawrence Kajtazi: Lalor driver does 170km/h with headlights off

A man who sped at up to 170km/h at night with his lights off during a police chase in Thomastown didn’t expect to almost run into 14 cops on the road.

Lawrence Kajtazi was sentenced to four months’ jail.

A man who drove at up to 170km/h at night with his lights off came close to slamming into 14 cops running a roadblock in Thomastown.

Lawrence Kajtazi was sentenced to four months’ jail and two corrections orders when he fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, December 3, having pleaded guilty to charges including driving in a dangerous manner and car thefts.

Kajtazi was speeding away from police about 2am on September 4 when he turned around the snakebend on Mahoney’s Rd and discovered police stopping traffic for COVID-19 checks.

He slammed on the brakes and tried to drive over a grass median strip to avoid hitting the officers, causing his car to get stuck on its side.

Police had to smash the car window and pull him out.

The Subaru he’d been driving didn’t have any number plates on it, but multiple stolen number plates were found inside it.

Kajtazi, who was disqualified from driving, had stolen the car from Northcote days earlier.

He had also stolen a car from Epping on the night of August 30-31, with all crimes breaching an 18-months corrections order he’d previously been sentenced to.

Kajtazi was put on the order in May, having also served 257 days’ jail, after he pleaded guilty to five car thefts, including an incident where police had to use a helicopter to chase him in an Epping quarry.

The court heard the Lalor man was an unemployed former forklift driver and drug user who had lost his sense of daily routine during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Magistrate Michael McNamara noted he had already served 90 days of his four months’ jail time, ordering him to complete two 21-month correction orders upon his release.