Shiloh Weston, 24, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to dangerous driving while pursued by police, unlicensed driving, driving an unregistered vehicle, refusing a drug test, committing an indictable offence while on bail, and affray.
Prosecution documents filed with the court said Weston was involved in a police chase in Shepparton streets on April 14.
The court heard that when police activated their lights and sirens after spotting Weston in St George’s Rd, he took off fast, crossing on to the wrong side of the road.
While the police Air Wing tracked him overhead, Weston drove on the wrong side of the road, forcing two vehicles to take evasive action to avoid a crash on the corner of St George’s Rd and Wilmot Rd.
Police said he continued to drive the white Kia dangerously through several Shepparton streets, with police on the ground twice unsuccessfully blocking it in after it had stopped.
Weston then drove at at least 100km/h in a 50km/h zone in Isabella St, before smashing through a closed roadworks site on Wilmot Rd, where he drove close to two road workers.
Weston was arrested after stopping in Hamilton St and running to a house in Wilmot Rd.
Back at the police station he refused to undergo a drug test.
In a separate incident, Weston and another man waited on the corner of Fryers and Maude Sts for four hours for four men to leave a hotel in Shepparton at about 12.50am on March 2, after being involved in an earlier incident with two of them.
The six men became involved in a brawl that saw one of the other men hit Weston with a bottle and the other man with him punched to the ground and repeatedly kicked, leaving him unconscious.
All six men were charged with affray over the incident.
Weston’s defence solicitor directed the magistrate to look at a corrections assessment, disability overview report and justice plan that were filed with the court.
In sentencing Weston, magistrate Simon Zebrowski said the affray would have been terrifying for anyone who saw it, but it did not alter the sentence he planned to impose for the other charges.
Weston was sentenced to 148 days in jail — time he has already served in pre-sentence detention waiting for the matter to resolve in court — and a two-year-community corrections order.
The corrections order, which also has a justice plan attached to it, will see Weston take part in treatment for drug abuse, as well as do offending behaviour programs.
He was also disqualified from applying for a driver’s licence for four years.
“You’re still technically a young offender, (but) your priors are starting to look terrible,” Mr Zebrowski said.
“You don’t want to spend the rest of your life in jail.”
Mr Zebrowski acknowledged Weston had “some struggles, and life’s dealt you some bad cards”, but urged him to make the most of this opportunity.
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