Maximus Robert Kearns, 20, successfully applied for bail in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court.
He is charged with two counts of exposing an emergency worker to risk in a stolen vehicle, theft of a vehicle, failing to stop after a collision, failing to stop on police direction while being pursued by police and unlicensed driving.
According to prosecution documents tendered to the court, police were called to Bunnings in Benalla Rd about 12.30pm on Tuesday, December 10 to reports of Mr Kearns’s co-accused “acting erratically while brandishing a hammer” inside the store.
When police arrived, Mr Kearns and his co-accused were out of the store and in the car park in a car that had allegedly been stolen from Mulwala the previous night.
Police allege Mr Kearns reversed the car into the front of the police divisional van, which had parked behind the allegedly stolen vehicle.
Two police officers were in the divisional van at the time, and the ramming caused minimal damage to the vehicle.
Police allege Mr Kearns then drove forward, scraping a civilian’s car, before mounting a garden bed and driving into the Shepparton Marketplace car park and on to Benalla Rd “at an extremely fast speed”.
Mr Kearns was arrested by police later that afternoon in Mooroopna.
The court heard that in a police interview, Mr Kearns told the police he “didn’t intend to ram police”, and that his passenger had “told him police were there and he reversed to get away”.
He also said he “travelled at 100km/h through the Marketplace car park”.
Mr Kearns was already on five counts of bail at the time.
He was most recently released on bail five days before this incident, after allegedly stealing $11,000 worth of tools from a tradie’s ute.
In bailing Mr Kearns, magistrate Olivia Trumble said as Mr Kearns was only 20, she “must prioritise his rehabilitation”.
“Prison is the last resort, and while you are quickly accumulating charges, you are not at that point,” she said.
Ms Trumble said the fact he was able to take part in the Court Integrated Services Program, and had stable accommodation and family support, satisfied the “compelling reasons” test for bail.
She also said a reason for granting bail was that all of his matters were “likely to take months to sort out”.
Among his bail conditions are that he must not drive, that he report to police twice a week, abide by a curfew, not associate with any co-accused, undertake the Court Integrated Services Program and re-engage with the Bridge program.
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