Chelsea Baas faces Portland Magistrates’ Court for string of driving charges

An unlicensed bakery worker caught speeding with her unrestrained child in the back has faced court. See what the magistrate said.

A Portland woman has been told she will spend time behind bars if she gets behind the wheel while unlicensed again, a court has heard.

Chelsea Baas appeared at the Portland Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to a string of charges including driving an unregistered vehicle with false number plates, driving unlicensed, exceeding the speed limit, refusing to undertake an oral drug test and failing to ensure her child was properly secured in a booster seat.

The charges relate to when the 26-year-old bakery worker was intercepted by police travelling at 98km/h in an 80km/h zone on February 4 last year, the court heard.

When police told Baas she was driving over the speed limit, she said she “thought it was 100” and should have “known better”.

Baas was also driving an unregistered vehicle bearing fake number plates and the court heard she knew the car was not registered but she was “desperate” to run errands and needed to drive her children around.

The court heard she also failed to show police her licence, which expired on June 30, 2020, and refused an oral drug test.

The court was told Baas refused to take the test because she had her child in the car and “simply wanted to get home”.

She also failed to strap her child into a booster seat, and the court was told she had told police she had been driving to get one when she was intercepted.

“It’s a very bad look to drive an unregistered car with false number plates on it,” Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said.

He took her circumstances into account, including that it was her first time in court.

“From reading in between the lines, you were in a financial situation,” he said.

Baas was fined $800 and an additional $750 for refusing to take drug test.

“Any refusal is a serious offence,” Mr Lethbridge said.

Baas’s licence was suspended for two more years and she was placed on a good behaviour bond for a period of 12 months.

Mr Lethbridge warned her not to drive again during the suspension and that she would be imprisoned if she did.