Joshua Imrei: Dandenong serial thief crashed car while high on ice
A reckless Dandenong man amazingly survived after he flipped his three times in a drug-induced crash.
South East
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A Dandenong man was high on ice when his car flipped three times after he crashed in Melbourne’s west, a court has heard.
Joshua Imrei, 27, pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday over the shocking smash plus a string of thefts spanning from December 2019 to January last year.
The court heard Imrei was iced-up when he ran a red light near Mt Duneed on December 13, 2019, causing his Peugeot sedan to smash into another car before flipping three times.
Imrei’s car came to a stop on a median strip but no one was injured in the crash, the prosecution said.
Magistrate Andrew Halse heard Imrei was also behind a number of car thefts in the Doveton and Endeavour Hills areas between January and February last year.
The dad nicked items including cash, sunglasses, wallets and gift certificates from at least four cars before using stolen cards to spend big on cigarettes and groceries, the court heard.
Imrei’s run came to an end when police saw him checking for unlocked car doors along an Endeavour Hills street on the morning of February 2.
The thief bolted from officers but was arrested after he stumbled while trying to run up a hill, the court heard.
Imrei’s lawyer told the court her client suffered from “intergenerational trauma” as an Indigenous man and struggled with drug addiction and mental health.
She said Imrei suffered from drug-induced psychosis at the time of his offending and showed symptoms of an acquired brain injury and schizophrenia.
Mr Halse ordered Imrei, who is on bail, be assessed for a community corrections order before he returns to court on Wednesday.