Raceview mum Jayde Munro Hermans jailed at Ipswich Court for 12th disqualified driving offence

An ex-Ipswich nurse has been jailed after her 12th driving without-a-licence offence and banned from the roads until the year 2036. A court heard her 15-page traffic history was “truly dreadful’’.

An Ipswich primary school cleaner has been jailed for her 12th driving without a licence offence. Picture: David Nielsen / The Queensland Times

An Ipswich primary school cleaner has been locked up and handed over a decade’s worth of licence disqualifications for her 12th driving without a licence offence.

Raceview cleaner Jayde Munro Hermans, 32, pleaded guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Thursday, July 4, to six counts of driving without a licence and one of evasion.

The court heard the mother-of-four already had six previous disqualified driving offences on her history – now totalling 12.

Her most recent disqualified driving offence occurred on December 12 in Yamanto.

The court heard she evaded police on that occasion after they activated their lights and sirens.

She had driven onto the wrong side of the road and through the wrong side of a roundabout before sideswiping a vehicle.

The court heard this caused $1600 worth of damage to the vehicle.

Acting Senior Sergeant Brad Dick said Hermans had a “truly dreadful” history, including 15 pages worth of traffic history.

This is included four previous evasion offences, he said.

“She’s breached probation, she’s breached community service orders, she’s breached suspended sentences,” he said.

“The sheer number of disqualified drives shows an utter contempt for the orders of the court”.

He said she should receive the maximum penalty of 18 months’ jail for the disqualified drives.

Defence lawyer Andrew Stewart said the first disqualified drive was at a particularly stressful point in Ms Hermans’ life in which she “clearly wasn’t thinking straight”.

“By August of that year … Ms Hermans had got herself into what she describes as a mess,” Mr Stewart said.

“She was using methamphetamine on a regular basis.”

He said there were gaps in Hermans offending when she had stopped using meth, but she had relapsed and reoffended.

Hermans also pleaded guilty on the same date to two counts of entering a premises and committing an indictable offence, two counts of possessing dangerous drugs, three counts of possessing utensils or pipes, one count each of contravening a probation order, failure to appear in accordance with an undertaking, possessing a knife in a public place, stealing and entering a premises with intent.

The court heard the offences occurred on various dates from June, 2022 to December, 2023.

Mr Stewart said Hermans had simply been a party to the enter premises offences, not the primary offender.

He said she had started using methamphetamine in recent years after her partner’s death, which the court heard was still the subject of ongoing investigations.

Before that, in the early 2010s, Hermans had been working as a nurse in a nursing care home, Mr Stewart said.

He said Hermans had been doing “relatively well” since this offending and had obtained cleaning work at a primary school.

She had also completed a Queensland traffic offenders course.

Magistrate Dennis Kinsella said she should have completed a traffic offenders program “years ago”.

He handed her a head sentence of 16 months’ jail, with parole release on November 4, 2024 after she has served four months in actual custody.

She was also disqualified from driving for two years for each disqualified drive, which Mr Kinsella said should accumulate to 12 years.

Hermans gave her mum a teary hug before being taken into custody.

Originally published as Raceview mum Jayde Munro Hermans jailed at Ipswich Court for 12th disqualified driving offence