A Riverside man who drove on the wrong side of the road over the crest of a hill while evading police was only stopped when police deployed road spikes, the Launceston Magistrates Court heard.
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Ashton James Whittingham, 25, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a raft of offences between June and October 2022, including two counts of evading police in one day.
Magistrate Evan Hughes said his offences included five counts of driving while disqualified and three counts of drug-driving as well as possessing and selling methylamphetamine and selling cannabis.
On October 4, 2022, Whittingham was seen by police in Jellico Street in Mowbray before he harshly accelerated away.
In Beatty Street, he drove at more than 100km/h in a 50km/h zone on the wrong side of the road and on the crest of a hill on a blind corner, Mr Hughes said.
Police spikes were deployed to stop the unregistered and uninsured Holden Rodeo which was seized by police.
Whittingham was a disqualified driver at the time and was in contravention of a bail order and had methylamphetamine in his system.
He was arrested and had been remanded in custody since.
Earlier in the day he evaded police in Cupania street in Rocherlea.
Mr Hughes said Whittingham was found to be unsuitable for community work hours because of a poor history of compliance.
It was Whittingham's fifth and sixth counts of evading police after previous offences in 2016, two counts in 2017, and one in 2020 which resulted in a four-month wholly suspended jail term.
Mr Hughes activated the suspended sentence.
He said the drug sales were difficult to quantify and that Whittingham displayed no evidence of any wealth.
"I am told that it was fund your own addiction," Mr Hughes said.
On the first count of evading police, he was jailed for two months and disqualified from driving for two years.
On the second count, he was sentenced to three months jail with parole available after half the term and disqualified from driving for two years.
A count of reckless driving, which included overtaking when unsafe to do and driving on the wrong side of the road, was subsumed into the evading police charge.
Whittingham was sentenced to seven months' jail on a range of other charges including drug driving, selling, possession and use of drugs, breach of bail, use of unregistered motor vehicle and contravening the conditions of a notice.
"The total term is 16 months backdated to October 4, 2022," Mr Hughes said.
An application by Tasmania Police for forfeiture of the vehicle will be heard on March 30 at 2.15pm.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
