A drunken hoon who led police on a high-speed pursuit through North Wollongong before he crashed his car and fled the scene has been jailed for 15 months.
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Tyrone Karaitiana had been drinking on the evening of December 13 last year when he decided to take his Holden Commodore for a spin.
In what Magistrate Michael Stoddart described as ‘‘appalling behaviour’’ the 24-year-old drove to the intersection of Achilles Avenue and Flinders Street, North Wollongong, where he did a number of burnouts in front of several hundred people lined up to enter the North Wollongong Hotel.
Karaitiana then sped off in a northerly direction, reaching speeds in excess of 100km/h as police followed in pursuit.
In the moments that followed he mounted the median strip to avoid stationary traffic and sped between lanes before losing control, becoming airborne and colliding with the concrete in the centre of the roundabout at the intersection of Mount Ousley Road and the Princes Highway.
The sedan continued on two wheels and hit another kerb, veered into oncoming lanes and came to a standstill in nearby Soudan Street.
Karaitiana, of Ruse, fled on foot but was arrested a short time later trying to pay people to exchange clothes with him in a nearby Subway fast food restaurant.
A later breath test revealed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.097 at the time of the incident.
Port Kembla Local Court heard on Monday Karaitiana had witnessed a murder in New Zealand as a child and had turned to chronic drug use as a teen to deal with his traumatic upbringing.
He had also been granted an Intensive Corrections Order in lieu of jail time for a violent offence just three days before the incident.
‘‘That just shows me how much respect you have for the law,’’ Magistrate Stoddart noted, before sentencing Karaitiana to a minimum 15 months’ jail.