Car thief who led police on peak hour chase across southeast suburbs was on parole at the time
An ice-addled thief had only been out of jail for 10 days when he led police on drug-fuelled car-thieving chase across the southeastern suburbs. So what sentence did the magistrate give him for his latest string of crimes?
South East
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An ice-addled car thief had only been out of jail less than two weeks when he led police on a dangerous pursuit across the southeast suburbs in busy afternoon peak hour traffic.
It was just 10 days since Dylan Bailey had been given parole for similar dodgy driving crimes when he went on the road rampage in May this year.
The 20-year-old had been released to live at his grandmother’s house, but didn’t stay there, and instead went on a drug binge which fuelled the car theft and police chase.
At the time he was out on parole on an 18-month youth detention sentence imposed in November last year for 10 car thefts and six driving while disqualified crimes.
At Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, disqualified driving, car theft, evading police, handling stolen goods and drug possession charges.
The court heard Bailey was driving a stolen car at around 5.40pm on May 17 this year when he was seen by police racing down Stud Rd in Wantirna South.
He then sped off down Ferntree Gully Rd in Scoresby and along EastLink reaching speeds between 130km/h and 160km/h, before getting off the freeway at Dandenong North and heading down side streets.
He was continually changing lanes, driving on the wrong side of the road, racing around roundabouts, bouncing over speed humps and failing to give way throughout the crazy chase before finally being caught in Doveton.
In court his defence lawyer said when Bailey was arrested he told police he was “in a highly drug-affected state” and had been using ice throughout the 10 days of his release.
She said he had a tumultuous upbringing that put his reoffending behaviour “into context”.
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Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said it was a “grave” example of “very dangerous driving” that was fortunate not to have ended in death.
“It was 10 days after release you were driving while disqualified in a stolen vehicle in a dangerous manner while pursued by police,” Mr Vandersteen said.
“It is extremely lucky you didn’t have an accident, it undoubtedly would have had a catastrophic outcome.”
Bailey was jailed for two years with a non-parole period of 12 months, minus 81 days already served.
He was also fined $400 and disqualified from driving for three years.