By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A disqualified ice-high driver in a stolen BMW X6 wagon who sped dangerously across the South East and inner suburbs for more than an hour before ramming two police cars has been jailed.
Jonathon Cushieri, 31, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to offences including conduct endangering life and intentionally exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving.
He reached speeds of up to 240 km/h, dodged two sets of stop sticks and ran numerous red lights as he tried to evade police from Fountain Gate shopping centre to South Yarra on the night of 8 February.
Sentencing judge Trevor Wraight on 5 October described the father’s conduct as “very serious and very dangerous” over an extended time and distance.
It was only by fortune no one was injured or killed, the judge noted.
There was no regard for other road-users, police officers or his passenger, the court heard. His only motivation was to avoid police capture, Judge Wraight said.
It was all the more dangerous because ‘ice’ was influencing his “already erratic conduct”, the court heard.
After a series of U-turns at Fountain Gate, Cushieri drove around police and avoided stop sticks at a car wash at Thompsons Road, Cranbourne.
Police Air Wing then followed him through Dandenong, Hampton Park, Noble Park, Rowville, Mulgrave, Glen Waverley and Burwood.
In response to an unmarked police car, he drove head-on into traffic down the wrong side of Springvale Road, Glen Waverley for about 600 metres.
After avoiding further stop sticks, police declared a pursuit due to the nature of his driving.
He reportedly travelled between 200-240km/h on the Eastern Freeway city-bound lanes.
Just before midnight, stop-sticks took out all four tyres on Wellington Street, Collingwood.
Cushieri then turned off his headlights and accelerated onto Punt Road, running red lights and swerving in and out of traffic at up to 90km/h.
He narrowly missed a civilian’s vehicle as he ran a red light without braking at Flinders and Exhibition Streets.
Despite his wheels losing traction, he continued at speed down St Kilda Road until he hit a dead-end at Domain Road metro-tunnel works.
He U-turned, clipped an unmarked police car and accelerated heavily and front-on into a marked police car. The $120,000 BMW wedged into the front end of the police car.
A resisting Cushieri was OC-sprayed and extracted from the wagon by police. In his car was about 6 grams of meth and 1 gram of heroin as well as suspected stolen goods.
He’d been smoking ice around the time of his driving spree.
In this case, Judge Wraight said Cushieri expressed remorse but no “meaningful insight” into the impact on his victims and the “enormous risk” inflicted on the community.
Cushieri has been medicated for ADHD since he was 5 years old.
He’d never had a regular job nor a driver’s licence, but an extensive criminal history including car thefts, burglaries, drugs and dangerous driving while pursued by police.
Since age 18, Cushieri had been in and out of custody. He was “to an extent institutionalised” and unable to break the cycle of drugs and re-offending, the court heard.
His rehabilitation prospects were “poor” but “not hopeless”, the court heard.
Cushieri was jailed for up to four years and three months. He will be eligible for parole after serving two-and-a-half years.
His term includes 239 days already served in pre-sentence detention.
