Darcy Saw: EastLink speedster nabbed with ‘widow maker’ in car
A Seaford motorist who raced down a freeway at ridiculous speeds was armed with a homemade club inscribed with a deadly message.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A speedster whose car was clocked doing nearly 170km/h and then again at just under 150km/h along EastLink has been banned from the road and fined.
Darcy Rhys Saw was then pulled over a day later after being seen on the same stretch of highway speeding at 152km/h.
That time the Seaford 29-year-old was also found with a bizarre homemade wooden club in his car.
Saw pleaded guilty to speeding, failing to provide driver information to police and possessing a dangerous article charges at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The court heard speed cameras on EastLink in Keysborough clocked a car registered to Saw going north at 148km/h in the 100km/h zone.
Three hours later the same camera clocked the same car going southbound, this time at 168km/h.
Police officers later went to his house to ask Saw who the driver was, but he said he couldn’t remember and would “ask around”.
A second request for information a couple of weeks later was also unsuccessful, with Saw telling cops “no one is saying anything” about who was behind the wheel on those two occasions.
And then on July 23 — just one day after the two speeding incidents — a marked police patrol noticed his Audi flying down the same stretch of freeway.
They pulled up behind it and watched as Saw reached a speed of 152km/h before he exited at the Burwood Highway turn-off in Wantirna.
When he came to a stop officers noticed a modified wooden table leg with the inscription “widow maker” inside his vehicle.
Saw told officers he wasn’t watching his speedo and he had written that message on the club, which he said was for his own protection.
He is serving a jail term over a violent aggravated burglary and criminal damage spree, and won’t be released until August next year.
Defence lawyer Hannah Fiddelaers said Saw was suffering from mental health issues at the time and he had “very little recollection” of the incidents.
She said he had already suffered a financial loss as the $7000 Audi had been crushed after it was impounded.
She said the 12 months in custody he had spent abstinent from drugs and alcohol had been a positive for him and it was something he wished to maintain upon release.
Magistrate Dr Michael King said repeated acts of extreme speed were very concerning and the public had a right to feel safe.
He said it would have been wiser for Saw to have told police who had been behind the wheel, as it is a mandatory two-year ban for anyone refusing to provide information.
“It is better to admit who the driver was and cop the consequences,” Dr King said.
“It would likely have been a lesser penalty.”
Saw was convicted, fined $2000, disqualified for two years and ordered to do a safe driver program.
