A 31-year-old man involved in a police helicopter pursuit in Wendouree must prove he can comply with a court-imposed order and not re-offend if he wants to stay out of prison.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jason Crawford and two-co-accused were involved in the pursuit on December 11, 2019.
Crawford was a passenger in a stolen white Subaru sedan which failed to stop for police and the police helicopter was called in to follow the vehicle at 1.20pm.
The vehicle was sighted at an industrial estate at Mitchell Park, Crawford saw the police helicopter but the trio continued driving.
IN OTHER NEWS
The Subaru was then involved in a crash with a truck on Forest Street, Wendouree, near Ballarat Grammar School.
Crawford's co-accused Georgia Cleary fled the crash scene and was located inside the school grounds, while Wade Turner and Crawford were found at an Adair Street address.
The trio were arrested and taken to the Ballarat Police Station or Ballarat Health Services for treatment.
In another incident in July, last year, Crawford was caught driving a Holden Calais sedan while unlicensed along Gillies Street, Mount Rowan.
His car was impounded for 30 days at a cost of $1717.
Turner pleaded guilty at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to eight charges. He appeared in the courtroom for the hearing.
The court was told Turner had a serious criminal history involving trafficking methamphetamine and a carjacking, which had resulted in periods of imprisonment and community corrections orders.
But defence lawyer David Tamanika said his client had not committed a crime in the community since July last year and this was a "stepping stone".
"He is going away from significant offending ... it may be a stepping stone in not going back to a high level of offending in the past," Mr Tamanika said.
He submitted to place Crawford back on a previous community corrections order and defer sentence.
Magistrate Noreen Toohey said she needed to know if Crawford would engage with Corrections Victoria and comply with a community corrections order.
She decided to vary the 12-month order and defer sentence for four months but warned Crawford to comply with the order and not re-offend.
"It's up to him. I would have thought by now he would really want to change and turn his life around," Ms Toohey said.
Crawford will return to court in July for sentencing.
If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.
