CARAVAN THIEF JAILED
A YOUNG mother who stole a 4WD, and the caravan attached to it, which she later crashed has been jailed for 18 months.
Tamara Louise Weatherall was on parole at the time from a fiveyear jail term, imposed for similar offending, when she stole the Landcruiser Prado and caravan from a Westbrook garage at about 7am on September 26.
Police prosecutor Rowan Brewster-Webb told Toowoomba Magistrates Court the complainant couple had been packing for a holiday and were inside their home when they heard a car door close in the garage.
They went outside to see Weatherall in the driver’s seat driving off in their 4WD with the caravan.
The owner and a neighbour set off in pursuit and called police, he said.
Weatherall, 27, and her female accomplice had driven toward Toowoomba Showgrounds.
Police tried to stop the pair as they drove east on Taylor St but Weatherall had ignored directions to stop and increased speed to more than 100km/h causing the caravan to sway from side to side.
As they approached a red light at the intersection of Tor and Taylor sts, Weatherall turned the car and mounted the footpath, crashing into the awning of a unit complex, destroying the caravan and leaving debris strewn across the area and onto the road.
Weatherall, who admitted to having taken the drug “fantasy” about an hour earlier, then struggled with police who had to use capsicum spray on her.
Weatherall had been in custody since serving time from the previous offence and appeared in court by prison video link to plead guilty to eight offences, including dangerous operation of a vehicle while adversely affected, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and obstructing police.
Her solicitor Claire Graham told the court her client’s fulltime release date on her previous sentence was November 2020.
Her client had been clean of drugs since being in custody and had been accepted to enter a drug rehabilitation program, she said.
Magistrate Viviana Keegan noted Weatherall had 14 pages of criminal history which include nine previous offences of unlawful use of motor vehicles.
Because of her history, Ms Keegan said Weatherall might struggle to get parole again but that would be up to the Parole Board.
She sentenced Weatherall to 18 months in jail, to be served after her current sentence, but ordered she be eligible to apply for parole as of March 7 next year.