Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

Anger management ordered for violent hoon

- JESSICA ELDER EXCLUSIVE JACK HOUGHTON JACK.HOUGHTON@NEWS.COM.AU

A FORMER tow truck driver who went on a violent hooning spree has to pay his victim $500 compensati­on.

Nicholas Scott Baran pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrate­s Court to assaulting two men after they asked him to stop doing burnouts outside their Upper Coomera homes. HERDS of feral, sex-crazed deer are terrorisin­g Merrimac residents and jumping in front of cars while parents pick up their schoolchil­dren.

The deer are living on an abandoned block of land on Boowaggan Rd owned by billionair­e Clive Palmer and are escaping through broken fences to wreak havoc on the nearby community.

Gold Coast City Council officers have been

The court was told that on April 3 Baran began doing burnouts along Reserve Rd near suburban homes.

A resident yelled at Baran, demanding he stop.

Baran stopped the car and punched the victim once in the head before chasing him and attempting to strike him again.

Following this, Baran left the area but returned a short time later with a male friend and continued doing burnouts. forced to kill multiple deer which have escaped in recent months and are monitoring several plots of land that are home to the creatures.

Merrimac resident Allan Tierney was driving past Mr Palmer’s property last week when a panicked deer pranced in front of his car, forcing him to screech to a stop.

“He was very scared and panicked, running all over the place,” he said.

“I finally got it to run back near a hole in the fence and it got through and raced off into the paddock to the other deer.

“Several times cars came round the corner and nearly hit it.

“There were little kids playing in the park opposite, parents were yelling to try to get the deer off the road.

“What a mess if a car col-

The court heard a second resident yelled at Baran, at which time Baran stopped the car and walked towards the victim with a bladed object.

Instead he dropped the weapon and punched the man in the face before fleeing.

Three weeks later police executed a search warrant at Baran’s Upper Coomera home and found a rifle, ammunition, testostero­ne, an ice pipe and 16g of cannabis. lected the deer right in front of the kids watching, or even more frightenin­g, if the car tried to avoid the deer and went off the road into the kids’ playground.

“Council have to do something and there is a council depot right beside them.”

Mr Palmer purchased the land in 2010 and has submitted a developmen­t applicatio­n to the council recently in a bid to transform it into a mini-city.

His plans include eight 30storey towers at his nearby golf course and across the land now home to the deer.

The former Avica resort on Gooding Drive will be transforme­d into Green Heart Gardens, a project that will include 5000 residentia­l dwellings.

However the land is now sitting vacant until council approves the mega-develop-

Baran pleaded guilty to further charges relating to the raid at his home.

Magistrate Cathy-Ann McLennan said Baran’s behaviour was “dreadful” but took into account his guilty plea.

Baran was ordered to pay one of his victims $500 in compensati­on, pay an infringeme­nt of $376 and received 18 months probation. He must also attend counsellin­g and anger management. ment and the deer which live there bred prolifical­ly.

A council spokeswoma­n said it was up to Mr Palmer to keep the deer population in check.

“City of Gold Coast receives complaints about wild deer from time to time and has recently received some complaints in the Merrimac area,” she said.

“At this time of year we tend to receive a spike in reports as it is breeding season.”

The State Government declined to comment, saying it was a council issue.

Mr Palmer did not return calls from the Bulletin.

 ??  ?? Deer escaping from land owned by billionair­e MP Clive Palmer (below) are causing havoc in the Merrimac area.
Deer escaping from land owned by billionair­e MP Clive Palmer (below) are causing havoc in the Merrimac area.
 ??  ?? Nicholas Scott Baran.
Nicholas Scott Baran.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia