An Illawarra father will be required to pay back $40,000 in compensation after he was sentenced for ramming a police car six times before leading officers on a high-speed daytime pursuit through Wollongong.
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Mitchel Jeffery Brooks, 30, will serve at least two years and four months behind bars for the incident on January 30 this year.
Magistrate Michael Stoddart sentenced Brooks to a total term of imprisonment of three years and six months to be backdated to July 18.
Brooks will also have to pay back more than $40,000 worth of damage he caused to a police vehicle.
Defence lawyer Graeme Morrison told the court Brooks missed watching his children grow up.
However, Magistrate Stoddart asked whether Brooks had considered if the police officers or other drivers had children when he went on the dangerous pursuit.
"You couldn't have cared less about them, you just wanted to get away," he said.
"It is amazing you or others were not seriously injured.
"I cannot overlook the fact you were on parole."
In agreed police facts tendered to court, it was an off-duty policeman's keen eye of an altered number plate that kicked off the dramatic pursuit in a stolen car.
The officer was travelling along Memorial Drive at Towradgi about 2.30pm when he spotted a 2016 Holden Commodore SSV sedan that had a number plate altered using a black texta.
The officer phoned colleagues to report the anomaly and followed the Commodore off the highway at Wollongong and along Flinders Street, where it pulled into the Car Lovers car wash at the intersection of Campbell Street.
Highway Patrol officers arrived at the location a short time later and one officer parked his car directly behind the Commodore.
The officer approached the driver's side door but Brooks immediately reversed the Commodore harshly, spinning the wheels, and ran into the highway patrol car, before accelerating forward, stopping and reversing again.
He then rammed the police vehicle five times, causing significant damage to the car, before generating an opening large enough for him to drive through.
Brooks drove out of the car wash onto Campbell Street - directly over a raised concrete island - then collided with the nearside of a white Nissan Navara at the roundabout.
He pushed past the Navara then rammed his car into the highway patrol car for a sixth time.
Brooks then reversed, knocked over a street sign and travelled the wrong way around the roundabout before accelerating north on Flinders Street.
Police initiated a pursuit but were forced to terminate it on Montague Street for safety reasons, after Brooks reached 100km/h in a 50km/h zone, after the Commodore crossed to the wrong side of the road at speed.
Brooks continued to drive dangerously towards Towradgi, including travelling north on Memorial Drive in the southbound lane.
Several motorists and a police officer had to swerve to avoid collisions, however two cars did crash.
Police, assisted by PolAir, discovered the vehicle dumped at the Woonona Beach car park a short time later.
Brooks was arrested on Franklin Avenue at Bulli after he ran into a drain.
A police dog arrived and coerced him to surrender before he was taken to Wollongong police station and charged with a host of driving offences.
In a police interview, Brooks denied knowing the car and the number plates had been stolen but admitted to being a disqualified driver.
He pleaded guilty to drive motor vehicle while disqualified, use of offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention, take and drive in conveyance without permission of owner, use vehicle displaying misleading number plate and police pursuit.
The sentence also included drugs and a weapons charges.
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