A DRUG-addled disqualified driver led police on a chaotic 25-minute pursuit across suburban Newcastle in peak-hour traffic before hurtling into an intersection at Wickham, hitting a motorbike rider and flipping a police car.
Matthew Ure, 32, had never held a licence, was behind the wheel of a stolen Ford Everest, armed with a firearm and had spent the day using ice and GHB.
And he was desperate to get away from pursuing police as he raced through Waratah, Mayfield, Newcastle West, The Junction, New Lambton, Broadmeadow, Hamilton North and Islington on the afternoon of January 14 last year.
He crossed to the wrong side of the road, ran red lights, mounted median strips, drove through public parks and forced other cars in peak hour to take "evasive action" to get out of his way.
He was chaos on wheels.
And then, about 25 minutes after the pursuit had started, Ure drove down Ivy Street at Islington with a police car close behind.
He headed straight into the busy intersection at Maitland Road and crashed into a man heading west on a motorbike, the impact throwing the 27-year-old rider five metres through the air and onto the roadway.
Ure didn't even slow down and was heading into Albert Street when the pursuing police car caught up and clipped the back of the stolen Everest.
Ure swerved and the police car rolled onto its side, coming to rest outside the Wickham Park Hotel.
Ure disappeared on foot, while his passenger, 26-year-old Aarron James Forster, was arrested after a short chase.
Police found Ure's identification and DNA in the stolen car, but he wasn't arrested for another two months.
Police spotted him at the train sheds at Newcastle East on March 12 and chased him through a gap in a wire fence, arresting him under a unit complex.
They searched his backpack and found a shortened loaded firearm, ammunition, a knife, hammer, knuckledusters and a stash of drugs and cash.
Meanwhile, the motorbike rider had been taken to John Hunter Hospital and underwent surgery for a serious knee injury, including fractures and an ACL tear.
He read a victim impact statement during Ure's sentence hearing on Tuesday, outlining how someone else's decision meant he could no longer play the sport he loves.
"Before this moment, I was an active person who played soccer three times a week, lived pain free and was looking forward to a year where myself and my siblings were all getting married," he said.
"All of a sudden everything changed.
"I was in hospital for a week and without knowing I had played my last game.
"I had more than a year of recovery ahead of me.
"All for something that could have easily been avoided.
"A year that was meant to be the most exciting of my life turned into something that was the most challenging."
He watched CCTV footage of the impact in Newcastle District Court on Tuesday and said he now felt remorseful.
"Makes me feel like shit," he said. "I apologise to him from the bottom of my heart.
"I never meant to hurt anybody, it wasn't my intention."
Ure, who has a long history of drug addiction, was using methamphetamine, GHB and alcohol daily around the time of the wild pursuit.
He said he was "scared" to stop for police and claimed the two firearms were because he was "scared for his safety".
Ure had pleaded guilty to police pursuit, aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, possession of a shortened firearm as well as a string of other charges stemming from his arrest.
And on Tuesday, Judge Roy Ellis jailed him for a maximum of six years, with a non-parole period of three years, making him eligible for parole in March, 2028.
