Fleeing motorist gets three year halt

A Temuka motorist who led police on two high-speed pursuits, four months apart, has been disqualified from driving for three years.

Michael Desmond Coles spent five months in custody after leading police on a chase through Christchurch, which resulted in the police Eagle helicopter being called, while he was on bail following a previous chase in Temuka.

Coles, 39, was sentenced to six months’ home detention, disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay $7492.62 reparation for damage caused when he appeared before Judge Dominic Dravitzki in the Timaru District Court on Thursday.

He had pleaded guilty to unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle, two counts of driving dangerously, two of failing to stop for red and blue flashing lights, and two of driving while disqualified for a third or subsequent time.

Police prosecutor Toaiva Hitila said Coles had been driving a Honda Civic which was not registered, fitted with plates from a Volkswagen, and did not have a warrant of fitness when he fled police on Waitohi Temuka Rd on December 18, 2019.

The officers had tried to stop him because he was travelling at 118 kilometres per hour in a 100kmh zone. Coles, whose speed reached 140kmh, tried to shake police by taking off down gravel roads with many tight bends.

When he failed to clear one bend, he slid down a grass bank.

Crashing into the passenger side of a police car when he attempted to get back onto the road, he headed back down the grass bank before coming to a stop 80 metres away.

During the second incident, which started in Christchurch about 12.45am on March 7, 2020, police abandoned the pursuit after Coles committed a number of dangerous manoeuvres, including driving around a roundabout on the wrong side and running a red traffic light.

The vehicle Coles was driving had been stolen from Dunsandel between February 29 and March 1, 2020. Road spikes brought the vehicle Coles was driving to a halt, after which a police Eagle helicopter located him hiding in a bush.

Judge Dravitzki acknowledged Coles was ‘‘remorseful and regretful’’ for his actions. ‘‘That remorse needs to be tempered with the fact you have intermittent periods where you appear before the court for serious offending.’’

The judge ordered for Coles’ vehicle to be confiscated.