Matthew Thomas Campbell sentenced for driving without a licence

A man with 16 previous convictions for disqualified driving drove his vehicle at a cop when caught behind the wheel, before crashing into a police car.

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A ‘nimble’ police officer jumped clear of a vehicle being driven at him by a man with 16 prior offences for disqualified driving.

Matthew Thomas Campbell, 33, pleaded guilty to 20 charges in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday, including his seventeenth charge of driving without a licence disqualified by a court order.

The court heard that all but three of the charges involved traffic and driving offences.

Police prosecutor Harriet Hearn said the most serious of the charges was one count of dangerous driving that directly involved the police.

She said police were investigating Campbell and arrived in a private Townsville car park in January this year.

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She said the police located Campbell’s unregistered, unroadworthy vehicle and ordered him to get out of it.

“He reversed at speed into another vehicle and then a police officer on foot had to quickly dive out of the way to avoid being run over,” said Ms Hern.

The court heard Campbell also managed to crash into the bumper bar of the police vehicle before being arrested.

She said on two occasions, including Boxing Day last year, the 33-year-old stole clothes from stores at Domain Central and police also located his vehicle in that shopping centre car park.

The police pressed charges on Campbell on two occasions for being a disqualified driver, uninsured, and driving an unregistered vehicle with number plates that did not belong to it.

“They also said the car was unroadworthy as it had holes in it,” said Ms Hearn.

At the time of all these offences Campbell, who has 15 pages of criminal history in Queensland, was on parole.

His defence lawyer Thomas Proctor said Campbell had a serious and crippling addiction to ‘ice’ (methamphetamine).

“It has completely derailed his life,” Mr Proctor told the court.

Chief Magistrate Ross Mack said it was most fortunate the police officer was ‘nimble enough’ to avoid being run over.

“All your actions were to avoid lawful detention and it is quite clear you are completely nonproductive and do not contribute to the community at all.”

Magistrate Mack disqualified Campbell from driving for up to 10 years and sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment.

Originally published as Matthew Thomas Campbell sentenced for driving without a licence