Getaway driver rammed cop car

A MAN seen on police camera footage ramming a police car and driving on the wrong side of the road was trying to flee a home invasion.

Clayton Charles Parsons, 27, was sentenced in the Townsville District Court on Wednesday for his involvement with three other men in a violent assault and high-speed police chase on April 21, 2019.

Parsons pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, one count of dangerous operation of a vehicle and one count of armed robbery in company.

The court heard the four men stormed a Townsville home with shirts covering their faces; two occupants of the house were punched and kicked multiple times.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton told the court that as the men fled the scene, they were caught red-handed.

“Police were conducting patrols nearby when the offenders ran out of the house; what then followed was a police pursuit,” he said.

Mr Dunkerton played a short clip of the police chase recorded by a police camera that clearly showed Parsons as the driver of the getaway car.

The footage showed Parsons speeding along Bayswater Road and driving on the wrong side on Dalrymple Road.

Police soon after called off the pursuit.

The court heard Parsons was found hiding a short time later by a police dog after fleeing the getaway car, breaking his ankle jumping over a fence.

Defence barrister Wayne Pennell said Parsons had known one co-offender his whole life and was “assisting” him to “sort the matter out”.

Chief Judge Kerry O’brien told Parsons his offending was “overwhelming”.

Parsons was sentenced to three years’ jail, with a parole date of June 25 next year.