A man whose offending was described by a magistrate as "persistent and pre-meditated" has been sentenced to time in prison.
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Brent Maciejewski, 31, appeared via video link from prison at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court for sentencing on Friday morning.
Last week he pleaded guilty to 20 offences committed between July 2020 and November 2021.
The court heard these offences were committed on five different dates.
The first five offences were driving offences committed in July 2020, including unlicensed driving, driving at 157km/h at Pentland Hills, driving an unregistered motor vehicle with false registration plates and with methylamphetamine in his system.
Five months after a three-month stint in prison he was found driving while disqualified at Mount Clear and about 3.30am on January 2021 he was found driving an unregistered motor vehicle with stolen number plates.
Upon apprehension he was found to be a disqualified driver and he had a "significant quantity of GHB in the vehicle".
In July 2021 he was detected driving his girlfriend's car in breach of a bail condition not to drive and on November 15, 2021 he was apprehended driving another car in Redan.
The court heard he was once again driving while disqualified and in breach of the same bail conditions.
Police searched the car and found eight grams of methylamphetamine inside, $390 in cash believed to be the proceeds of crime and evidence of drug trafficking on his phone.
On this day he was remanded in custody.
The court heard Maciejewski had a criminal record, including for driving while unlicenced, disqualified or suspended, for drug driving, dishonesty offences, trafficking and weapons offences and had been imprisoned several times.
On Friday magistrate Ron Saines said drugs were a "significant feature" of his offending.
"But it neither excuses nor does it fully explain all of your criminal history," he said.
Mr Saines said there had been attempts to facilitate treatment and rehabilitation in the community in the past by way of community corrections orders but these had failed by the orders being breached.
He said the offending could "only be categorised as persistent and pre-meditated".
"The seriousness of the offending and its persistence, particularly drug trafficking in the context of your prior history, means the court must emphasise deterrence and denunciation in respect of your offending.
"In these circumstances imprisonment must be imposed."
Mr Saines sentenced Maciejewski to five months in prison. He has already served 129 days in pre-sentence detention.
If he did not plead guilty he would have received eight months in prison.
His licence was cancelled and disqualified for 15 months.
He warned him that if he was caught driving again then the vehicle would be impounded "regardless of who owns it".
"You need to understand that if you're driving a motor vehicle or for the purpose of committing crimes - drug offences, speeding, driving disqualified, you must expect there will be an application to forfeit it and have it destroyed in accordance with the law, regardless of who the owner is."
While corrections assessed him as being at a high risk of reoffending, he was still suitable for an order.
"My judgement is that the seriousness of your offending warrants there being a period of post-release supervision in the community for the purpose of drug issues."
The order will begin once he is released and will last for 12 months.
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