Hoon gets jail

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
Jamie Alex Tabone pleaded guilty to drink-driving, dangerous driving, reckless conduct endangering life, two charges of evading police and three charges of driving while disqualified.
Ringwood Magistrates’ Court heard that Tabone had a previously undiagnosed brain injury which was received when he crashed his car into a tree four years ago.
Defence lawyer Richard Davis told the court the injury prevented Tabone from “inhibiting automatic responses”.
Mr Davis said the injury was “the reason, not the excuse” for the Berwick man’s irrational behaviour.
Tabone was caught driving at an average speed of 160km/h at night along the Melba Highway last December, at times without headlines and overtaking vehicles on double-white lines with oncoming traffic approaching.
Two weeks later he smashed another car in Warragul when trying to evade police at speeds of 140km/h just after midnight. He then ran off and was found hiding behind some trees.
On a third occasion he was stopped along Burwood Highway in Ferntree Gully on 21 April and again charged with driving while disqualified.
Magistrate Tony Parsons told the court last Thursday (18 August) that he could see how the reckless behaviour might be linked to the brain injury but the earlier offending was a different case.
“He shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place,” he said.
Mr Parsons said the calculated decisions – driving while disqualified and driving with a blood alcohol reading of almost .05 – deserved three months in jail.
“When you get behind the wheel of the car you put the whole community’s safety at risk. Clearly you didn’t learn that nine months ago,” he told the defendant.
Mr Parsons said he accepted the brain impairment “was strongly related the actions taken during the police chases” and placed Tabone on a two-year community service order while seeking treatment for the injury.
“You were driving at potentially lethal speeds … it is quite extraordinary no one was killed by you that night,” he said.
Police prosecutor Louise Heal told the court Tabone was “impulsive when it suits”.
“He still made a consecutive decision to pick up the keys and get into the vehicle – that alone deserves a jail sentence,” she said.