Omar Chaouk avoids jail over police chase on Western Ring Road
A thug who led police on a wild chase along the Western Ring Road has been spared jail because of the trauma he suffered while watching the murder of his gangster father.
Police & Courts
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The son of slain crime boss Macchour Chaouk has avoided jail over a wild police chase because he suffered trauma after witnessing his father’s murder.
Omar Chaouk, 31, was sentenced at the County Court on Thursday to a community correction order after he pleaded guilty to a string of offences related to a police pursuit in Melbourne’s northwest.
During her sentencing remarks, Judge Patricia Riddell said Chaouk’s upbringing in one of Victoria’s most notorious crime families exposed him to violence and significant trauma from an early age.
She noted Chaouk witnessed the fatal shooting of family patriarch Macchour Chaouk, 65, who was gunned down in the backyard of their Brooklyn home in 2010.
At the time, the feared Chaouk clan was embroiled in a violent feud with rival crime family the Haddaras but no one was ever charged over Macchour’s murder.
Chaouk was also present when officers from Victoria Police’s tactical unit shot dead his older brother Mohamed Chaouk, 30, during a house raid in 2005.
“The circumstances of your childhood is extraordinary,” Judge Riddell said.
“You were a young boy and teenager when those events happened around you.”
“The fact you bore witness to the shooting of two members of your family is rare.”
Chaouk, who made headlines in 2015 after accidentally shooting himself in the testicle while reaching into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes, was spotted by a police patrol partially blocking a road in Kealba in August 2020.
He appeared drug-affected and incoherent when police pulled up in front of him before the learner driver rammed them and took off in a stolen black Audi Q7.
Patrol officers called off the pursuit after Chaouk ran through a red light and was seen speeding in excess of 150km/h.
The air wing tracked Chaouk along the Western Ring Road where he had a near miss with a semi-trailer after stopping on the freeway.
Four police cars boxed him in before officers broke the driver’s side window and deployed capsicum spray.
But Chaouk used his car to push a patrol vehicle out of the way before making another escape.
He swerved on to the wrong side of the Western Highway before coming to a stop at a service station where he exited the vehicle and was arrested.
Chaouk was remanded in custody for more than five months before he was released on bail.
He entered a guilty plea to charges including theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving while pursued by police and intentionally exposing emergency workers to risk.
Judge Riddell said Chaouk’s offending was serious but noted it occurred about 1am and during a Covid-19 lockdown which meant the roads were “mostly deserted”.
The judge acknowledged Chaouk had an intellectual disability and accepted he suffered mental health disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his upbringing.
“It’s the mark of a humane society … to take into account the lifelong damage from exposure to violence,” she said.
Chaouk was given a two-year community correction order and fined $800.
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