New Year sentence hearing for accused dangerous driver

POLICE claim the 21-year-old had stolen the vehicle from a Stanthorpe car dealership and eventually crashed it in Warwick.

A MAN accused of stealing a Ford Ranger from a car dealership and driving dangerously between Stanthorpe and Warwick where he crashed the vehicle is to be sentenced in the new year.

Matthew Johne CORRECT Buchanan will spend Christmas and see in the New Year from a cell at Borallon Correctional Centre after his sentence hearing was set.

The 21-year-old is accused of stealing the vehicle from a Stanthorpe dealership about 3pm on August 21, and driving at speed across the Carnarvon Bridge towards Wallangarra Rd.

Police followed as the Ford Ranger travelled on the New England Highway towards Warwick, allegedly crashing into another car on Rosehill Rd.

He is then accused of driving at speed before losing control while trying to take a corner and rolling.

Buchanan, who hails from Gympie but had been living in Marsden at the time, was initially taken to Warwick Hospital.

He has not been required to plead to three counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle and one each of evading police, failing to comply with duties of a driver involved in a crash, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a crash, and unlicensed driving.

On parole at the time of the incidents, he was taken into custody where he had remained.

Solicitor Phil Stainton asked the court to set a date for his client to be sentenced via video from the prison.

Magistrate Lisa O'Neill therefore adjourned sentence to January 10 in Toowoomba Magistrates Court with the defendant to appear by video link.

Originally published as New Year sentence hearing for accused dangerous driver