A MAN, who was on the run from police when he led them on three pursuits, has been ordered to spend two years behind bars and warned one of his "nine lives" had been used up when the final chase ended in a nasty crash.
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Brandon Charles Lee Waters, 25, appeared via video link from custody in Tamworth Local Court late last month when he was sentenced on the three police pursuit charges, as well as for driving a stolen car.
The court heard Waters was actively trying to evade arrest when he sparked three police chases in Tamworth across 10 days in August, forcing other drivers to avoid him at times as he travelled through give way signs and on the wrong side of the road.
Aboriginal Legal Service defence solicitor Gemma Ridley submitted the third and final pursuit was the most serious and had left Waters "pretty battered" when it ended in a crash.
Police facts show Waters was unlicenced when he was spotted behind the wheel of an unregistered gold hatchback in South Tamworth about 11:30pm on August 25.
Police said he "accelerated harshly" away from officers when they turned their lights and sirens on, in an effort to pull him over.
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Waters eventually hit the New England Highway and headed south, briefly reaching a speed of 170km per hour.
Things took a turn for the worse when he slowed down "dramatically" for a bend near Wallabadah before hitting a dead kangaroo in the middle of his lane.
The hatchback fishtailed across the highway, rolled several times and eventually came to rest on its roof, leaving Waters hanging by his seatbelt.
Waters dragged himself out of the driver's side window of the car after the crash and was arrested at the scene, before being taken by ambulance to Tamworth hospital with leg injuries and cuts.
Ms Ridley detailed to the court the traumatic life experiences Waters had been through and submitted he had a need for support and rehabilitation.
She said Waters had told her: "I need to pull my head in."
Magistrate Julie Soars found special circumstances made out.
You are a young man and you can still turn your life around.
- Magistrate Julie Soars
"It's lucky no one else got caught up in [the crash]," she said. "You must be a cat with nine lives sir, and you have used one of them up in that accident."
She said she had tried to avoid imposing a "crushing sentence" after hearing the submissions, but in the end had no choice but to order him to spend two years in prison, convict him of the four charges and disqualify him from holding a licence for two years.
"You are a young man and you can still turn your life around," Ms Soars told Waters.
"You need to avoid the people that bring you down, you may need to move towns ... you need serious intervention to help you turn things around."
With time served, Waters could be released on parole in September this year.
"The community is not to be put at risk by this type of offending," Ms Soars said.
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