Christopher Fogarty gets huge fine for evading police at Gladstone

A magistrate has been left puzzled after a well-respected man heavily involved in the Central Queensland community and sporting clubs, faced court for bizarre offending.

Christopher John Fogarty faced a Gladstone court after evading police. Generic image.

A well-respected man in the Central Queensland community has been hit with a massive fine for offending the magistrate described as “inexplicable”.

Christopher John Fogarty, 58, pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court on Wednesday to speeding and evasion.

The court heard that just before midday on June 27, Fogarty, a man with no criminal history and a “very minimal” traffic record, was driving at 93kmh in an 80kmh zone on Awoonga Dam Road.

“And when police have started following him, he’s gone up to 109 (kmh) in an 80 zone (for 1.5km) with police trailing along behind with their lights and sirens (activated) before police stopped the chase,” prosecutor Sergeant Merrilyn Hoskins said.

The prosecutor said two-and-a-half hours later, police went to Fogarty’s home and he told them he had seen the police driving behind him, he also heard the lights and sirens, and he thought he was “getting warned.”

Ms Hoskins said Fogarty did not recall speeding up after being pursued by police.

She described Fogarty’s offending as “inexplicable” and later, Magistrate Mary Buchanan described it the same way.

For the evasion offence, Fogarty faced a penalty of either 50 days’ jail (actual time served) or an $8065 fine.

Gladstone Courthouse.

Solicitor Cam Schroder said Fogarty had been a “very law abiding citizen up to now”.

At that point, Magistrate Buchanan interjected and said: “Yeah it seems that way - this is inexplicable really.”

Mr Schroder then added: “A few things have gone wrong in his world, Your Honour.”

“His references (three of them tendered to the court) are simply glowing.

“He’s been deeply involved in the community,” Mr Schroder said in relation to Fogarty’s volunteer roles at the local surf, cricket and rugby league clubs.

“In his personal life, his sister made a secret attempt to remove him from the will - that has troubled him greatly

“And then he had the loss of his beloved stepfather who he was very close to, and then his closest childhood friend passed away, and then his mother has died.

“He’s involved in very ugly litigation (estate matters).”

Ms Buchanan agreed the references for Fogarty were “glowing” and she found his offending was out-of-character.

She fined him $8200 and disqualified him from driving for two years.

A conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Christopher Fogarty gets huge fine for evading police at Gladstone