Since Michael Joseph Batchelor has been driving, he has been driving badly.
The 23-year-old has 90 infringements to his name and his licence has been suspended six times, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.
Judge Michael Crosbie, who took the man’s guilty plea on Tuesday, said Bachelor had accumulated the most demerit points he had seen in years.
On July 26, he had been stripped of his licence again.
Police spotted him turning into Dundas St from Clyde St and he did little to fly under the radar.
Batchelor was chatting on his cellphone at the time and failed to stop at a mandatory stop sign.
When officers activated their lights and siren, he took off. The defendant sped through a red light at the intersection with Cumberland St at 70kmh.
It was just before 2.30pm when Batchelor had raced through the heavily populated Dunedin student precinct.
"There were numerous other road users at this time. Due to the defendant’s driving they had to take evasive action," a police summary said.
Batchelor took a similar approach to the next set of lights at Great King St. By the time he turned into George St, police were 250m behind and could not make up any ground.
The Holden stretched the distance to 350m when he accelerated along Park St.
Police ended the pursuit because of the danger to the public it posed.Batchelor did not waste time covering his tracks once he knew police would be searching for him.
"Within an hour the defendant had arranged to sell or swap his Holden vehicle used in the police pursuit," police said.
The switch with a Toyota vehicle took place two days later.
When police tracked down Batchelor, he denied being the driver and said he did not own a Holden.
However, he pleaded guilty to charges of reckless driving and failing to stop for police when he appeared in court this week.
Judge Michael Turner, who sentenced the defendant yesterday, said his last time before the court in April 2015 for reckless driving causing injury resulted in a home-detention term.
It had not changed Batchelor’s attitude, he said.
"The gravity of the offending is extremely high," Judge Turner commented.
"This is a sustained course of driving through the centre of Dunedin on a weekday afternoon."
Judge Turner said the sentence he handed down had to deter Batchelor and anyone else tempted to do the same thing.
"There is also an element of protecting the public from you," he said.
The judge said it was difficult to detect any remorse on the part of the defendant but the man’s counsel, Deborah Henderson, said the incident had been "a huge wake-up call" for her client.
She said it was scientifically acknowledged men’s brains were not fully developed until the age of 25.
"[Batchelor] has accepted he hasn’t quite reached brain maturity," Ms Henderson said.
Judge Turner jailed him for six weeks and banned him from driving for 15 months.
Batchelor will spend his 24th birthday in jail.
