Those were the words of police prosecutor Rachel Elliot about a man facing court after being picked up by police five times for driving while suspended.
Emre Aktas, 19, from Katandra, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to five counts of driving on a suspended licence, possessing a controlled weapon, speeding between 10 and 25km/h over the limit, two counts of driving an unregistered vehicle, driving without a front P-plate displayed, and two counts of theft.
Ms Elliot told the court police found Aktas driving on a suspended driver’s licence four times between mid-September and early November last year, and once again in May this year.
The first of those occasions came only 15 days after his P1 driver’s licence was suspended for excessive speeds.
At that time, he also had a knife in a bum bag he was wearing.
On another two times, as well as his driver’s licence being suspended, the cars he was driving were unregistered.
On one of those occasions, Ms Elliot said Aktas told police at the time he was driving because “my missus is a week off birth and was nagging me to get something for her”.
On another, he was speeding at 118km/h in a 100km/h zone at Congupna.
The court also heard Aktas stole $62 worth of petrol in a petrol-drive-off at a Traralgon service station on June 15 last year.
He was also involved in the theft of five bottles of perfume worth $345 from Chemist Warehouse in Echuca on June 1 last year.
Aktas’s defence solicitor Dayna Powell argued in court that her client was young, did not have a job, and lived out of town with his pregnant partner.
She said when he drove on a suspended licence in November, he had just moved house and had not received a notice about his car registration.
Ms Powell tried to argue for her client to be put on a diversion — which is similar to an official warning — for the theft matters, saying it was his first time before the court.
Ms Powell said the petrol theft occurred after Aktas and his partner had visited his uncle in jail but did not have enough money for petrol for the drive home.
Magistrate Amina Bhai did not agree with placing him on a diversion, saying he had not “made the most of his opportunities” since those offences.
Ms Powell also asked for Aktas to be sentenced to a good behaviour bond on all the matters — something that Ms Bhai also did not agree with.
“You’ve repeatedly disregarded the road rules by driving while suspended,” Ms Bhai said.
Aktas was fined $200 on the two theft charges, and a further $600 for all other matters.
However, no conviction was recorded.
His driver’s licence was also suspended for one month.
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