Dylan Norman, 23, pleaded guilty in Benalla Magistrates’ Court to driving dangerously and failing to stop when requested by police, driving while suspended, assault, making unnecessary noise while driving, failing to carry a driver’s licence, and failing to display P-plates.
Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Braden Wright told the court Norman sped away from police in Allan St, Kyabram after they tried to pull him over when his Holden Commodore sedan was flagged on the police database as being owned by a suspended driver at 3.15pm on January 12 last year.
Police activated their lights and sirens as Norman accelerated heavily east along Allan St, which was a 50km/h zone.
He also crossed on to the wrong side of the road before turning into Breen Ave.
Leading Sen Constable Wright said Norman was driving at 177km/h in a 60km/h zone when police locked in his speed on a moving mobile radar in the police vehicle.
Norman’s solicitor Geoff Clancy, however, said while his client admitted to driving fast, he disputed the 177km/h figure that police alleged he was doing.
“There is no statement on how the (speed) lock was put on,” Mr Clancy said of his client, who lived in Kyabram at the time of the incident.
Leading Sen Constable Wright also told the court that in a separate incident, Norman was involved in an assault on the owner of a bar in Benalla on New Year’s Eve 2020.
Norman and a co-accused man were drinking at Shady Billy’s at the time, when the bar owner, a former friend of theirs, attempted to make the co-accused leave for making a nuisance by trying to get free drinks.
The court was told that when the co-accused refused to leave his seat, the bar owner grabbed his arm and lifted him off his seat.
The co-accused swung a punch at the bar owner, and the owner punched him in the face.
The co-accused then punched the bar owner several times as he was walked to the door.
The pair fell to the ground and the bar owner got on top of the co-accused and pinned him to the floor before he threw him out of the bar.
Two hours later, at 12.30am, Norman and the co-accused returned to the bar where the bar owner tried to reconcile with them by offering to shake their hands but he ignored them.
Thirty-five minutes later Norman and the co-accused jumped over the bar, to which the owner told the pair to go to the front lounge with him.
Leading Sen Constable Wright said in the front bar Norman and the co-accused “lunged towards” the bar owner, who kicked out at them.
The bar owner was “hit on the head with a bottle and a stool but did not see who struck him”, Leading Sen Constable Wright said.
Mr Clancy said his client denied being the one who used the stool or bottle in the assault.
The court was told that in yet another incident Norman — who was then a resident of Baddaginnie — “revved his vehicle excessively and unnecessarily” when he was stopped while police were investigating a car crash in Arundel St, Benalla on April 30, 2022.
Leading Sen Constable Wright said when Norman was spoken to by police on this occasion he did not have his driver’s licence with him and was not displaying P-plates.
Norman was assessed for a community corrections order, but Mr Clancy argued for a large fine to be considered as a sentence, as he was at low risk of re-offending and had a full-time job.
In fining Norman $5000, magistrate Peter Dunn said Norman was better off working.
Norman’s driver’s licence was also cancelled and he was disqualified from driving for two years.
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