Police have charged a man over a car crash at Cringila last week that left him with gruesome facial injuries.
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Twenty-year-old Samuel Dunn needed 26 stitches to his face in the wake of the September 16 collision.
He fronted Wollongong Local Court on Monday with the 6cm wound clearly visible, running from the left side of his nose, diagonally over both lips and onto his chin.
Police allege Dunn was at the wheel of an unregistered white Mitsubishi sedan when he ran a red light at the intersection of Five Islands Road and Lake Avenue Wednesday afternoon.
The Mitsubishi hit the back of one car before slamming into a blue Holden Commodore, causing extensive damage to both.
Dunn spent five days in Wollongong Hospital with a hairline fracture to his knee, extensive bruising and pain before police arrived to arrest him and charge him over the crash and other crimes.
On Monday Wollongong Local Court heard Dunn had a drug addiction and had increasingly come to police attention in recent months, culminating on Wednesday, when he was allegedly the cause of three unrelated calls to police.
He is accused of pinching a $240 skateboard from SDS Wollongong store before colliding with a passer-by and skating off down Wollongong Mall.
Later the same day he allegedly visited his former home at Port Kembla, smashed a window there and removed belongings, in defiance of an apprehended violence order.
Police prosecutor Kylie Talty opposed Dunn's release on bail on Monday, noting he was already on bail and a community corrections order when he allegedly re-offended.
Appearing via audio-visual link, Dunn appealed to Magistrate Robert Walker directly, claiming he would comply with strict conditions if released.
"I don't remember it happening", he said, of his alleged crime spree. "I don't know whether I'd been drugged that day or not ... I was at Mangerton and I had been sleeping."
"Can you see my face? I've been in hospital a week. All I need is a good night's sleep, some food that isn't [from a packet] and some pain medication so I can actually sleep."
"I swear upon my heart that that [re-offending] will not be the case tonight."
The court heard Dunn was homeless but had been given temporary accomodation at at Wollongong motel.
He was granted bail.
"I know what happens to blokes your age when you got go jail ... I'm going to grant him bail because of his age, mostly," Magistrate Walker said.
Dunn must report to police daily, abstain from drugs and alcohol and avoid Crown Street Mall. The matter returns to court October 13.