Toby Martin Brennan faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court, pleads guilty to unlawful entry of vehicle

Sensing something was awry after accepting a lift from someone he didn’t know too well, a 30-year-old’s suspicions were confirmed when police approached the vehicle he was in.

A Toowoomba man has faced court after he accepted a lift from a person he didn’t know too well, only to find out the car he was in was stolen when police approached the vehicle while at a service station.

About 5.30am on May 18 police attended a service station in Westbrook and found Toby Martin Brennan sitting in the front passenger seat of a black Audi that had been reported stolen from an East Toowoomba address the day prior.

Police prosecutor Anita Page told the city’s magistrates court on Wednesday that police, recognising the vehicle as being stolen, approached but as they did Brennan fled from the vehicle only to be apprehended a short time later.

Toby Martin Brennan, 30, faced Toowoomba Magistrates Court on September 21, 2022, for unlawful use or entry of vehicles.

In court the 30-year-old pleaded guilty to the summary offence of unlawful entry of a vehicle.

Brennan’s solicitor Nathan Bouchier told the court his client works as a gas rig operator in gas fields across western Queensland, and was on his way to the airport to fly out to work when he found himself in trouble.

Mr Bouchier said his client accepted a lift from “someone he didn’t know too well”, and that he was suspicious of the person and the vehicle, only to have those suspicions confirmed when police approached the vehicle.

Magistrate Rowan Silva accepted that Brennan was remorseful and that his plea of guilty was at an early stage.

Brennan was fined $800, referred to SPER, with no conviction recorded.