Hoon gets jail term

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
A SERIAL hoon from Berwick has been given three months in jail for his decision to “pick up the keys”, but not for evading police at speeds of up to 230km/h down the Melba Highway.
Ringwood Magistrate’s Court heard that Jamie Alex Tabone, 23, had a previously-undiagnosed brain injury received when Tabone 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 Tabone’s irrational behaviour.
The court heard that Tabone pleaded guilty to drink-driving, dangerous driving, reckless conduct endangering life, two charges of evading police and three charges of driving while disqualified.
Tabone was clocked 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.
Two weeks later he smashed another car in Warragul when trying to evade police at speeds of 140km/h just after midnight – he ran and was found hiding behind some trees.
Magistrate Tony Parsons told the court last Thursday that he could see how the reckless behaviour may 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,” Mr Parsons 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.