A 32-year-old Cowra man has been given a nine month prison sentence and disqualified from driving for three months at Cowra Local Court.
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Ian Kevin Carr was before the court on a number of driving offences including a never licensed person driving on the road, using an uninsured and unregistered vehicle, stating a false name to police, dishonestly obtaining property and driving recklessly.
Carr was also called up on a breach of bond in relation to a previous police pursuit where he drove in a reckless manner.
According to police facts around 7.24am on July 31, Carr and a co-accused were at the United service station in Cowra when police noticed the vehicle they were fueling had no front or rear registration plates.
When police entered the service station, Carr and his co-accused sped off without making an attempt to pay for the fuel they had pumped and causing the vehicle’s rear wheels to spin. Police decided against a pursuit due to weather and traffic conditions, though did observe Carr’s vehicle speed over the Lachlan River Bridge and past the Cowra BP station at speeds well over 100km/h.
Police also received a number of reports over UHF from heavy vehicles saying they had been overtaken by a vehicle travelling at high speeds.
Around 7.40am on July 31, Carr and his co-accused lost control of the vehicle spinning backwards into a ditch on the Eugoura Road near Gooloogong. Cowra Highway Patrol later found and arrested Carr and his co-accused walking along the Lachlan Valley Way and took them to Cowra Police Station where Carr repeatedly provided a false name to police until finger printing revealed his true name.
Carr’s solicitor Nidal Abdi said to the court that Carr realised he had no excuse for driving the vehicle the way he did and recognised his behaviour was foolish, but was worried about what would happen to his ill mother if he was sent to prison.
“Mr Carr had instructed me that if he could go back and change what he did he would have jumped out of the car and told the police who he was and went with them peacefully,” Mr Abdi said.
“He doesn’t know what he will do if his mother passes away while his in custody.”
In sentencing Carr, Magistrate Michael O’Brien said that he had to hold Carr to account for what he had done and send a message to the community that offenders will be punished severely.
“You made a choice to break the law,” Magistrate O’Brien said.
“No one wants to see you here, the community would love you to behave yourself and follow the law. What is it going to take to make you stop making bad decisions.
“The only person you can blame is yourself, you only get one life and spending it with your freedom taken away is a tragedy.”