Youth faces raft of charges after high-speed police pursuit

By Paul McInerney
Updated November 5 2012 - 10:03pm, first published January 28 2010 - 10:20am

Corrimal teenager Nathan Hall faced a raft of charges in Wollongong Local Court yesterday after a dramatic police pursuit through suburban streets which reached speeds of up to 120km/h.During the 20-minute chase police allege 19-year-old Hall, with four young passengers on board, ran red lights and drove on the wrong side of the road on a number of occasions in a bid to escape.The chase, which began about 6pm on Wednesday in Flagstaff Rd, Berkeley, was called off at Figtree after police decided it was too dangerous to continue.Police were alerted by a member of the public that the car had been dumped in Mary Ave and the five occupants had run into the grounds of Figtree Heights Public School.They were all detained soon after.Hall faces charges of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, negligent driving, exceeding the speed limit by more than 45km/h and not stopping on police direction.Opposing bail, police prosecutor Sergeant Leah Argent said it was the third occasion in less than a year that Hall had been at the wheel of a car being pursued by police. He is currently disqualified from driving until July 2012.She said he had received a two-year bond for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified in July last year, but he was then sentenced to eight months' periodic detention when he breached the bond with a similar offence - a sentence he was serving at the time of the latest pursuit.Magistrate Michael Stoddart said the fact police called off the pursuit demonstrated the dangers involved. He refused bail and remanded Hall in custody to appear in Wollongong Local Court on February 2.

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