Rider pays for highway bust
A DRUG trafficker who drove his motorbike into a police officer and tried to avoid arrest in Hobart will be released from custody after he was sentenced yesterday.
Huon William Gendall, 27, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Hobart in October to assaulting a constable on July 1, and drug trafficking charges between October 27, 2018, and July 1, 2019.
He pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of speeding, displaying false number plates, evading police, possessing a glass smoking pipe, possessing a laser pointer in a public place, unlawfully possessing a dangerous article in a public place, possessing a Taser and possessing ammunition.
In sentencing Gendall in the Supreme Court in Launceston yesterday, Justice Robert Pearce said the officer was riding a police bike on the
Brooker Highway on July 1 when he clocked Gendall riding at 120km/h in an 80km/h zone and displaying a false number plate.
When Gendall pulled up at a set of traffic lights, the officer approached him on foot, stood in front of him and instructed him to stop. Gendall walked his bike backwards, revved it and drove it at the officer.
The constable grabbed onto the front of the bike and was carried 10m before pulling the bike and Gendall to the ground.
Police found quantities of the drug ice in Gendall’s jacket, and later found three mobile phones, a laser pointer, a Leatherman and a pocket knife. He had never held a motorcycle licence and his driver's licence had expired.
About two months earlier, police searched a South Hobart home where Gendall was living, as well as a van, and found quantities of ice with a street value of more than $18,000, opioid tablets and 10 ice pipes. Gendall also was charged with trafficking in ecstasy and cannabis.
Justice Pearce said the officer sustained injuries to his right hand and knee, and a fractured finger. “Incidents like this can be disturbing, even for a robust and experienced police officer,” he said.
Justice Pearce sentenced Gendall to five months in pris for the assault and one month for evading police, backdated to July 1 — equivalent to time served since his arrest in July.
He suspended Gendall from driving for 18 months for driving offences.
Gendall was fined $21,200 for the benefits he received from selling drugs, he was ordered to forfeit $1679 in cash that was located by police and believed to have been the proceeds of crime, and was ordered to pay the state $5670 to cover costs.