Tyler Allan Crocker faces Toowoomba court, pays hefty price for failing to stop on police direction

He came to Toowoomba for a fresh start but has ended up with a $7000-plus fine and two-year driving disqualification.

A man who moved to Toowoomba for a fresh start has been left without his driver’s licence for two years and fined more than $7000 for failing to stop for police on the city’s main street.

Tyler Allan Crocker had been seen driving erratically and swerving in and out of traffic on Ruthven St south about 8pm, January 13, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told on Monday.

However, when the police patrol activated lights and siren, indicating for him to pull over, Crocker kept driving and turned into Stenner St heading towards Spring St, police prosecutor Julia Wheaton told the court.

Police withdrew from following him but by the car’s registration number they were led to Crocker’s home where they arrived to see him pull up in the same car in nearby Beer St, she said.

Tyler Allan Crocker leaves Toowoomba Courthouse on March 20, 2023.

Sergeant Wheaton said Crocker told police he had become nervous when he saw the police vehicle and panicked.

Crocker pleaded guilty to one count of evasion.

His solicitor Joe McConnell, of McConnell Saldumbide Lawyers, said Crocker had grown up initially in Toowoomba but moved to the Gold Coast when he was 10 and had endured a difficult childhood.

His client had used drugs during his 20s but had only started committed offences when introduced to meth not long ago, he said.

Crocker had moved back to Toowoomba in December 2022 for a fresh start and had good prospects of a job when he got the court matters out of the way, Mr McConnell submitted.

Acting magistrate Andy Cridland fined Crocker the mandatory minimum fine of $7187.50 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the mandatory two years.