A George Town man who crashed into two police cars and drove at 150km/h on the Batman Highway during a crime spree was sentenced to nine months jail.
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Michael Rodney Smith, 25, pleaded guilty in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday to a raft of charges from August and September last year including two counts of evading police, reckless driving, stealing, injuring property, driving while disqualified, attempted motor vehicle stealing and drug possession.
At the time of the spree, Smith was the beneficiary of a drug treatment order which allowed him to avoid 14-months of jail as long as he complied with the terms of the order.
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However, the 14-month sentence was activated in October 2020 when the drug treatment order was cancelled.
A sentence of 12 months for firearm trafficking in 2018 had been deferred in the hope Smith would make progress with the drug treatment order.
Magistrate Simon Brown said that despite a record comprising 45 pages he needed to impose on Smith a sentence which was not deemed to be crushing.
On September 5 last year, Smith drove into a driveway in Pateena Road and stole a milk crate full of power tools worth nearly $3000.
Police arrived at the property and drove towards Smith's silver Honda with lights on high beam but he continued and collided with the front bumper of the police vehicle and then drove away.
Later the same day, police stopped at his address in George Town and Smith reversed out of the driveway colliding with the police vehicle and drove off. Witnesses later saw him driving on the incorrect side of the road at speeds of up to 150km/h.
Mr Brown said Smith had received prison sentences of five years since he turned 18.
"Your driving record is particularly bad and this was a bad case of aggravated evasion," he said.
In 2015, Smith was jailed for dangerous driving, evading police and driving while disqualified.
The drug treatment order was imposed after an episode of evading police, reckless driving and driving while disqualified.
Mr Brown imposed two months jail for one count of aggravated evasion of police, four months for the more serious evasion of police involving the reckless driving and three months for stealing and attempted motor vehicle stealing.
Smith was disqualified from driving for three years on top of existing disqualification periods.