A 20-YEAR-OLD L-plater who led police on a 20-minute car chase around the streets of Tanilba Bay, sometimes driving at up to 45 kilometres per hour over the speed limit, has been disqualified for 12 months.
Blake Swadling, of Mallabula, came to the attention of police about 5.30pm on July 17 at Salt Ash driving a silver-coloured Hyundai 130. They ran a licence check and found he'd been disqualified from driving for three months two days earlier. They began to pursue Swadling, who they thought was going to pull over, but Swadling sped away instead, a police statement of facts tendered in Raymond Terrace Local Court on Wednesday said.
He drove along Lemon Tree Passage Road at between 95 and 104 kilometres per hour in a 90 zone, and along Peace Parade at Tanilba Bay at 95km in a 50km zone, sometimes swerving onto the other side of the road, before eventually pulling over in a car park and running into nearby bushland, police said.
He was later arrested at a house where he told police he'd "panicked", because he thought if he got caught he would go to jail. Magistrate Ian Cheetham told him that he'd hoped he'd learned a good lesson in life. "If you find yourself in trouble the best thing to do is to put your hand up because if you run away things just get worse for you."
He was convicted, disqualified from driving for 12 months and placed on a 12-month community correction order.
