Teen sentenced over violent Hervey Bay rampage with stolen cars

A seventeen-year-old faces detention after an extraordinary 24-hour rampage involving stolen cars, violent robberies and a dramatic police pursuit through a public park on the Fraser Coast.

A teenager who used a stolen car to ram another vehicle before driving dangerously through parklands also stole a purse from a woman in the street and broke into a FoodWorks store during a shocking crime spree, a court has heard.

A teenager who used a stolen car to ram another vehicle before driving dangerously through parklands also stole a purse from a woman in the street and broke into a FoodWorks during a shocking crime spree.

The teen pleaded guilty in Brisbane Childrens Court to 13 counts on indictment, including unlawful use of a motor vehicle in the night, two counts of breaking and entering premises and stealing, one count of burglary with violence while armed in company with property damage, one count of attempted armed robbery in company, one count of common assault, one count of wilful damage, two counts of robbery in company, one count stealing a car in company, one count of fraud and two counts of dangerous driving.

He also pleaded guilty to seven summary offences, five of disqualified driving, and two of failing to comply with the duties of a driver when involved in an accident.

According to sentencing documents, the boy, aged 17 at the time, went to FoodWorks in Maryborough, gaining access after his co-accused allegedly threw a rock through the front locked doors and then stealing a quantity of lighters about 2.30am on June 15, 2024.

About 5am, the teens were seen in a stolen car, driving at speed from a hairdressing salon, where the front door had been smashed, and some type of lamp had been stolen.

At 6.25pm they went to a house where the co-accused demanded to be let in, saying, “Get your daughter here because she has been speaking s**t about me.

“I need to see her,” he said, according to the documents.

At 6.25pm the teen and his co-offender went to a house at Urangan.

The girl’s mother closed and locked the doors and began to call the police, but the teen and the co-accused kicked in the front door, causing damage to the frame, and went inside.

The co-accused, armed with a knife, allegedly pushed the mother as she tried to top them getting inside.

The teen then approached the daughter’s bedroom.

His co-accused was still armed with the knife, and allegedly threatened to hurt the girl.

“She understandably was extraordinarily frightened by what was going on,” sentencing remarks by Judge Brad Farr read.

“Your (co-accused) entered her room, kicked her to the stomach, which caused her to fall to the floor, rifled through her drawers, threw a glass table at her, assaulted her further,” he said.

“She sustained a swollen left ear, a minor injury to her head, bruising to her stomach, and broken fingernails.

“You were standing nearby while all this was going on.

“Ultimately, the pair of you left without taking any property.

“During that assault, your (co-accused) also again pushed the young woman’s mother into a wall, smashed some property, and left in that unlawfully used motor vehicle.

“Now, while you did not do the majority of the offending that I have just described, you were a party to it through your active and non-accidental presence, and having driven your (co-accused) to the premises in the first place.”

Judge Farr described the teen as an “enthusiastic participant” in the offending at the home.

Later that night, the teen and the co-accused approached two women on the Esplanade, with the co-accused allegedly threatening them.

He then took the purse from one, containing her car keys, causing her to fall to the ground, the court documents read.

The teen approached another woman and stole her purse, also causing her to fall to the ground.

The two returned to the car and drove away, using the property they had taken from one of the women to find her house.

“The pair of you went there, and then you used the keys to her vehicle and drove that vehicle from that residence,” Judge Farr said.

Judge Farr said the teen had a long juvenile criminal history, involving offences of a similar nature.

“You continued to use the original car that was being unlawfully used.

“Eventually, police located both vehicles.”

The teen had refuelled the car at one stage without paying for it and also drove the vehicle dangerously by deliberately ramming a vehicle in front of his three times in quick succession before performing a U-turn and driving away.

“On another occasion, after police were discreetly following you, they parked you in, blocking your escape,” Judge Farr said.

“After realising that you had been followed and parked in, you put that vehicle into reverse, and drove it deliberately into the front of the police vehicle.

“You could not move it, though, so you then drove forwards through parklands, where there were members of the public present.

“People had to quickly scatter as you drove dangerously through the parklands to escape.

“You performed a U-turn in the park before driving away from police back towards the Hervey Bay Esplanade.

“All of this, of course, occurred when you had no licence, and of course, you did not stop to provide any particulars.

“Later that evening, police apprehended you, and you have been remanded in custody since that time, after declining to participate in an interview.”

Judge Farr said the teen had a long juvenile criminal history, involving offences of a similar nature.

He said the teen had previously received “a variety of sentencing outcomes”.

“No doubt they were designed with your rehabilitation as the predominant, or at least a predominant consideration,” Judge Farr said.

“It is quite apparent, though, that nothing that the courts have done thus far has had any rehabilitative effect upon you, and it certainly has had no deterrent impact.

“You just keep committing offences.

“You committed these offences not long after being released from detention.”

The teen was given a head sentence of two years in detention and disqualified from driving for two years.

Judge Farr said having taken into account the serious nature of the offending and his age at the time of the commission of these offences, “in the context of your criminal history and the absence of any realistic efforts at rehabilitation, it seems to me appropriate to record convictions in respect of the more serious offences”.

Convictions were recorded on four of the charges.

Originally published as Teen sentenced over violent Hervey Bay rampage with stolen cars