Dominic John Nunan faces Mackay court for driving stolen cars, drug possession

A young man has been caught driving stolen vehicles five times across Mackay and Brisbane just weeks after spending more than 12 months behind bars. Read what else he did.

Dominic Nunan was caught driving a stolen car five times across Mackay and Brisbane.

A 21 year old was barely a month out of jail when he crashed a stolen car on the Bruce Highway while driving at more than 160km/hr.

Mackay Magistrates Court heard Dominic John Nunan was on a suspended sentence after serving more than a year behind bars when he crashed the Holden Commodore in Morayfield on September 16.

Magistrate Bronwyn Hartigan said a witness was driving to work when he saw the Commodore “buzzing past him” at excessive speed before he then came across it mounted on a traffic island with a damaged front end and a leaking radiator after it collided with a sign.

Ms Hartigan said the witness phoned police after seeing Nunan flee the “destroyed” car and jump into the passenger seat of a Volkswagen, having already pinched two tablets, a wallet and earphones from the Holden.

The next morning CCTV footage captured Nunan rummaging through a car parked in a residential driveway to only return to the Petrie address minutes later to try but fail to get inside another car.

The court heard the next month he was found with methamphetamines, marijuana and a hypodermic syringe and needle in West Mackay.

Then in November, the Mackay region man drove a stolen Holden Cruz in Slade Point, a stolen Toyota LandCruiser in Walkerston, and a stolen motorbike in North Mackay.

Ms Hartigan said when police tried to take up with Nunan, he tried running away and jumped over a six foot fence and into a pool only to be found with 0.248g of meth.

Solicitor Sean Gibbs, of Fisher Dore Lawyers, said his client had a “prejudicial upbringing” spending a large portion on the street as his parents were drug users and his mum was in and out of jail.

The court heard Nunan had never held a driver’s licence, was only educated to Year 7, had very limited work history, and upon release from jail had returned to hanging around known car thieves.

Nunan – whose criminal history included robbing a person with violence at a Burpengary train station, partaking in a riot at Capricornia Correctional Centre, and assaulting a corrective services officer – pleaded guilty to numerous charges.

They included five counts of unlawful of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, two counts of driving while not the holder of a licence, driving without a helmet, distracting a police officer in the performance of their duties, stealing, two counts of possessing methamphetamines, possessing marijuana, failing to take reasonable care of a hypodermic syringe and needle as to avoid danger to life safety of another, enter premise with intent to commit an indictable offence, and attempt to enter premises with intent to commit indictable offence.

Ms Hartigan said Nunan had used drugs and alcohol to self-medicate for past “traumas” and had hung around the “wrong” people.

She recommended he find better friends and increase his education through TAFE so he could better his work options.

She sentenced him to 12 months jail, fined him $400, disqualified his licence for seven months, and committed him to the Mackay District Court for breaching his suspended sentence.

Ms Hartigan set an immediate parole release date, declaring 123 days as time already served.

Convictions were recorded.

Originally published as Dominic John Nunan faces Mackay court for driving stolen cars, drug possession