‘Stupidity is unbelievable’: Thief led police on dangerous chase

A DRYSDALE man’s erratic driving put lives at risk and sparked a police helicopter chase, a court heard.

Jack Walters, 22, appeared via video link at the Geelong Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to theft and dangerous driving offences.

About 3am on May 25, 2021, Walters entered a car parked at a Leopold home and took a woman’s spare house keys.

He used the keys to enter her house through the back door while she slept.

The court heard Walters took her workbag and her bank card from her wallet.

He then entered a converted shed where the victim’s son was sleeping. When the son woke, a startled Walters fled the scene.

The accused used the victim’s bank card – and another that he lifted from a car parked on a Drysdale property the previous day – to make a number of transactions at service stations in Leopold, Norlane and Corio.

Police later located Walters in a red ute with a female passenger and attempted to intercept him by activating their siren and the lights.

The man started driving erratically, including reaching excessive speeds and driving on the wrong side of the road. A helicopter was brought in to monitor Walters as he continued to flee.

At one point, he drove towards police and swerved away from them.

When he was stopped, police located the bank cards along with two prescription drugs, including a Xanax pill. Walters did not hold a relevant prescription for the drugs.

Magistrate Simon Guthrie said the “stupidity is unbelievable”.

“The resources that had to be utilised to prevent you from killing yourself or your passenger or anybody, sadly, that was travelling at the time on the road, let alone the police who were probably thinking, ‘my goodness, we may be waiting for a serious consequence’,” Mr Guthrie said.

He said he was disappointed Walters did not appear in person because he wanted to “show him the door”, referring to the custody centre.

Police submitted that while imprisonment was in range, the man had “taken steps in terms of his rehabilitation” and a community corrections order could be sufficient depending on the courses that he would be ordered to complete.

Walters will return to court after he has been assessed for a community corrections order.