A Saddleback Mountain man who led police on a 22km-long car chase - potentially while snacking on methamphetamine - was a recent parolee who had been out of jail less than three weeks, a court has heard.
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A disqualified driver with a history of flouting road rules, Ryan Elliott Twist was already well known to police when they spotted him behind the wheel of a white Holden Commodore at Albion Park Rail during afternoon peak hour on November 2 last year.
Police attempted to pull the car over but Twist accelerated off, using the breakdown lane to undertake several vehicles as he travelled northbound on the Princes Highway.
He crossed to the wrong side of the road to go through the roundabout joining the Princes and Illawarra highways, before driving off at speed while being pursued by highway patrol officers.
Near Dapto, the vehicle sustained so much damage to its tyres it was reduced to a crawl. However, Twist did a large, smoky burnout at the Berkeley exit, waving to southbound traffic as he did, then took off again, reaching speeds of up to 100km/hr.
A short time later, all four tyres blew out, followed by the rear bumper, which was left dragging behind the car.
Twist drove the vehicle all the way to Wollongong until it died near the Princes Highway exit at North Wollongong. Officers jumped from their vehicles and pounced on Twist, dragging him from the car and handcuffing him.
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A search of the vehicle discovered a "significant amount" of the drug ice spread erratically through the front of the car, leading police to believe Twist had been ingesting it as he drove.
Officers also discovered a machete and a large carving knife in the car.
Twist was sentenced to 30 months behind bars in Wollongong Local Court on Monday, with Magistrate Susan McGowan saying he was lucky neither himself or another driver had been seriously hurt due to his manner of driving.
"This is not the first time he's been involved in a police pursuit," she said, noting his most recent jail sentence was for a strikingly similar matter.
"He's lucky there was no collision on this occasion. All in all, it was an extremely dangerous exercise."
Twist will be released from custody after serving a 15-month non-parole period.