A Ballarat Magistrate has condemned the “significantly dangerous” actions of a hoon driver, telling the community they must shift gears away from this behaviour.
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Snake Valley P-Plater Harley Mansfield, 20, has pleaded guilty after driving doughnuts in a well-known hoon hotspot with a two-year-old child in the backseat.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Clint Prebble told the Ballarat Magistrates Court that on July 27 last year, police observed and heard Mansfield driving doughnuts in the Big W car park at 2.10am.
It comes weeks after police condemned hoon behaviour, with Ballarat Highway Patrol fearing it’s only a matter of time before a person is killed by an out-of-control car.
I have been told you were egged into performing doughnuts … You were the one who needed to say ‘no’.
- Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz
CCTV of the incident showed the car pass within one metre of the footpath and 1.5 metres of a light pole.
Mansfield was intercepted by police with three passengers in his vehicle, including a friend’s toddler.
Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz told the guilty man “the fact the road was wet, and you came very very close to a pole and the kerb, you were putting yourself and the others in the car, including the child, into a significantly dangerous situation”.
“When I sentence you, I must send a message to the community about this type of behaviour,” the Magistrate said.
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Ms Mykytowycz said Mansfield had “leapfrogged up the scale of offending” due to the seriousness.
Defence lawyer James McKenzie argued for his client’s licence not to be affected past the mandatory period for his first offence, as there would be “flow on effects which could impact him getting employment”.
Mansfield’s licence was cancelled and disqualified for six months, and was given a Community Corrections Order which requires him to complete 50 hours of community work.
