Joshua Feltus led police on Rowville chase on Stud Rd, Ferntree Gully Rd, Kelletts Rd
A tradie who led police on a manic chase through Rowville at 3am, while the rims of his Commodore’s tyre spewed sparks, has claimed lockdown caused his drug relapse.
Outer East
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A drugged-up driver who led police on a wild pursuit has blamed his crimes on COVID lockdown stresses, a court has heard.
Police used stop sticks to try and stop Joshua Feltus, but the maniac motorist sped away with smoking, sparking and shredded tyres.
Eventually ditching the car and fleeing on foot, Feltus was soon sniffed out by police dogs hiding behind a bush in a front yard.
The roof tiler, who lives with his mum in Ringwood, pleaded guilty to a range of driving and drug-related charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The court heard police noticed a red Holden Commodore on Stud Rd, Rowville at 3am on August 30.
Officers saw the car had false plates and activated their lights and sirens, but Feltus wouldn’t pull over.
Instead the tradie sped off and turned into Bergins Rd, back onto Stud Rd and along Kelletts Rd before stop sticks were deployed.
Feltus drove straight over the spiked device, causing his front tyres to shred apart, before screeching back onto Stud Rd at around 100km/h with sparks pouring from the bare rims.
He then drove onto the wrong side of Ferntree Gully Rd, which is when police decided to terminate the road pursuit because it was too dangerous, leaving the police helicopter to keep tabs on the man.
Feltus eventually stopped the car in Gath Court, Rowville, jumped out, ran into a front garden and hid in the undergrowth.
But canine cops arrived on the scene and he was arrested.
Officers found a range of prescription pills – none that belonged to him – in the car, as well as stolen number plates.
The car was unregistered and Feltus was a disqualified driver at the time.
Four months prior, Feltus had been caught at a Wantirna service station with ice and prescription pills in a bag.
He told officers the drugs were left over from when he was smoking the night before with friends and said the pills were his, even though they were not in his name.
His defence lawyer told the court Feltus had been spending a lot of time during the COVID pandemic at home alone and had struggled to cope, relapsing back into drug use.
She said he hoped to go back to South Australia where a lot of his family lived, and start afresh.
Feltus, who has 12 pages of criminal priors, has already spent 64 days in custody.
Magistrate Andrew Halse remanded him to be sentenced on November 17.
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