A man who stole a milk tanker from Cobram and led police on a chase that ended at Tabilk had filled out a job application and left it at the truck company office when he took the truck.
Matthew Lawrence Long, 45, of Barooga, pleaded guilty in Melbourne County Court to dangerous or negligent driving while pursued by police, damaging an emergency services vehicle, burglary, theft, being a prohibited person possessing an imitation firearm, and possessing a drug of dependence.
He also pleaded guilty to the summary charges of drug driving, using a phone while driving, and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Judge Marcus Dempsey jailed Long for three years, and set a non-parole period of two years.
The court heard Long stole a $1.5 million Volvo B-double truck from McColl’s Transport in Cobram shortly after 11.30pm on July 9 last year, leaving a note that said he was “taking the truck to get fixed so he could save ‘Kiwi’s’ job and get a job himself”.
He planned to drive the truck to Geelong to be fixed, but first washed it before leaving Cobram about 2am.
When the truck was stopped by police in Shepparton an hour later, Long was capsicum sprayed by an officer after he refused to turn off the engine.
He mounted a gutter and collided with the side of the police car parked in front of him, damaging the car extensively.
Another police car gave chase, as Long drove through multiple red lights in Wyndham St before stopping the truck and reversing at the police car behind him at Kialla.
He then crossed on to the wrong side of the road several times as police followed.
Once on the Violet Town-Murchison Rd at Murchison, Long again stopped the truck and reversed at the police vehicle, before he slowly drove the 10.5-tonne truck across historic Kirwans Bridge — which has a three-tonne load limit.
The truck eventually came to a stop on the Avenel-Nagambie Rd at Tabilk at 5am.
Long told police on the phone he had a gun — which turned out to be a gel blaster — sparking negotiations that did not end until 7.42am when he was arrested.
“That this episode ended the way it did is a credit to those involved,” Judge Dempsey said.
A search of the truck found a gel blaster imitation gun, a black scope belonging to the gun, several bags of gel blaster pellets and 9.7g of cannabis.
Long was also drug driving, did not have a driver’s licence, and was on bail at the time.
In sentencing, Judge Dempsey spoke of psychological and neuropsychological reports that spoke of a childhood that saw Long run away from home at the ages of 13 and 15, and also start using cannabis at the age of 15.
They also spoke of how Long had bipolar disorder.
Judge Dempsey described Long’s driving history as “poor”.
For the year before these offences Long had taken himself off his psychiatric medication and was using cannabis again.
“This was part of a delusional and manic episode,” Judge Dempsey said.
“The truck was huge. One needed to be sober, coherent and clear of mind (to drive it), and he was none of those things.”
Judge Dempsey said the fact Long had a gel blaster — which is classified as an imitation gun — between the seats of the truck was “troubling” and there had been no reason given for it being there.
He noted that a report told how Long had not slept for 48 hours before the offending and had even filled out a job application before stealing the truck.
“The offending is only explicable through the distorted views he had of the world at this time,” Judge Dempsey said.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, with a non-parole period of two years.
The 452 days he has already spent in pre-sentence detention was ruled as time already served.
Long was also fined $200 for drug possession and $500 for drug driving, and was disqualified from applying for a driver’s licence for 36 months.