James Michael Marshall sentenced after ice-fuelled dangerous driving

An unlicensed driver in an unregistered car with dodgy brakes went on a high-speed road rampage before he flipped the vehicle just metres from a busy footpath. HIS SENTENCE >>

Burnie Supreme and Magisterial Court

AN unlicensed 20-year-old who drove at nearly double the speed limit and ran red lights before flipping his unregistered car onto a busy Penguin footpath had been on a five-day ice binge.

James Michael Marshall pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Burnie to dangerous driving and a range of related offences in relation to a rampage that started in Burnie and finished with his unroadworthy $600 car upside down at the intersection of Main and Johnsons Beach roads in Penguin on November 27 last year.

Marshall has been in custody since his arrest that day.

Justice Tamara Jago said Marshall had told police after his arrest that the “car brakes failed and he had dodge cars” on his 15km journey.

Marshall was headed to Sheffield before his potentially deadly road rampage was stopped in its tracks.

“You were travelling at speeds of up to 120km/h as you approached Penguin. You told the police you thought you were going to kill someone but you kept going,” Justice Jago told Marshall.

“Your drug binge in no way mitigates your offending. It increases the danger to other road users and pedestrians.

“You careered onto two wheels, struck the gutter and swerved across two lanes before you hit another kerb and landed on your roof just metres from a walking path.

“There were people there at the time and you are fortunate no-one was hit.

“For a young person your record for driving offences is poor.

“You have never had a licence and the car was unroadworthy. Both front wheels were non-compliant and there were no brakes.”

Marshall was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Burnie on Wednesday to a court mandated drug treatment order which will have a custodial component for 18 months.

Marshall will be subject to random testing during those 18 months.