William Ashton: High hoon smashes into house after burnout
A partying plumber has chucked his licence down the S-bend after he stuffed up a skid and crashed into a stranger’s home.
South East
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A drugged-up driver who smoked the rear tyres of his Commodore before losing control and careering into a house has fronted court.
William Patrick Ashton had spent the previous night getting off his head on MDMA and marijuana with his mates.
He then got behind the wheel, did a burnout and ended up embedded in the side of a brick building.
The Carrum Downs plumber also admitted pushing his then girlfriend in a drunken fight and stealing phone cover cases from the Bayside Shopping Centre.
Ashton pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous and drug driving, as well as theft and unlawful assault at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The court heard at about 10pm on September 28, 2019 Ashton was driving along Excelsior Drive in Frankston North, which is a 50km/h residential zone.
He put his right foot down hard, broke traction in the rear end and did a fishtailing burnout, which was measured at 139m long.
But that was too much for his limited skills and he lost control, went through a brick fence and smashed into a house.
He wasn’t injured in the crash, although his car was a write-off and the house was structurally damaged.
And when he was drug-tested he recorded a positive to both ecstasy and cannabis.
Defence lawyer Natasha Jayasuriya said Ashton lost his plumbing job at the end of 2018 and began drinking heavily, at times necking a slab of beer a day.
She said he had since got himself back under control, had a baby with a new partner and returned to work as a plumber.
She said he had made “a very poor decision” to drive after he had been using drugs with his friends the night before, and said he would not be repeating that mistake.
Ms Jayasuriya said financially he had been hit hard as he had lost his car and was having to pay an insurance company back for the house damage.
Magistrate Charles Tan said due to his extremely poor driving he would now be digging even deeper into his wallet.
“It is only through good luck and fortune that you didn’t kill or seriously injure someone, or yourself,” Mr Tan said.
“What you did was deliberate and dangerous.”
Ashton was fined $1800 and had his licence disqualified for 12 months on the driving charges.
He was also fined another $600 for stealing the phone covers and placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond for the unlawful assault.
