Break-up sparked rampage
A GOLD Coast stable hand who went on a six-month crime spree after she broke up with her partner was told by a magistrate there were “plenty more fish in the ocean”.
Stephanie Frances Boody’s crime spree included a highspeed chase across the Gold Coast in July during which she struck a police officer with her car, damaging his utility belt.
During the same chase Boody drove into a police car and began to jump fences in an attempt to escape.
Days later Boody visited her sister’s residence brandishing a firearm and demanding she be let in.
It is not clear if the firearm was real as it has never been recovered.
The 23-year-old cried in the dock in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday during the hour-long hearing after she pleaded guilty to 17 charges.
Her mother, sister and aunt also cried and tried to write notes to her, holding up a piece of paper in the gallery.
The charges included dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, possessing dangerous drugs, stealing, assaulting and obstructing police, and trespass.
Magistrate Brian Kucks warned Boody drugs was not a way to deal with a break-up.
“There are plenty more fish in the ocean and it’s certainly not a way to be dealing with it by going and getting drugs,” he said.
Boody walked from court yesterday after being sentenced to six months jail. She had already spent two months behind bars and was allowed immediate parole.
Mr Kucks ordered she remain on probation for twoand-a-half years.
Boody’s offending began in January and only stopped when she was apprehended by police in July. She was found with the drug ice in her car just a day after the high-speed chase, which went from Nerang to Pacific Pines.
Defence lawyer Sam Jackson, of Bamberry Lawyers, said Boody had been crime free until last year.
“She used (drugs) for the first time in 2017 and it seems the offending began,” he told the court.
Mr Jackson said while in custody she had time to become clean. He said she hoped to return to the racing industry where she had been employed since leaving school in Year 10.