By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN has received a suspended jail sentence after parking in a disability car spot at a shopping centre and then pushing over a disabled pensioner backwards, causing the victim to strike his head on concrete.
The Noble Park North man pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court this month to recklessly causing injury to the 61-year-old man who had an ongoing hip complaint and held a disability parking permit.
The victim was taken to Dandenong Hospital with a sprained shoulder and minor head injury.
The man also pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers while they arrested him at his home over the incident.
One of the police officers used capsicum spray after the man allegedly tried to strike his colleague in the face.
Both officers sustained cuts and abrasions during the arrest.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the accused was a “very powerful man” whose actions could have caused a serious injury or death to the victim.
The accused showed a “high degree of arrogance” in parking in the bay, and then refusing to leave when asked, Mr Vandersteen said.
“If there’s anything that’s socially unacceptable, it’s parking in a disabled spot,” Mr Vandersteen said. “You just don’t do it.”
The man refused to sign up to a community corrections order, so was convicted and sentenced to an eight-month jail term suspended for a year.
“It’s a matter of pulling back,” Mr Vandersteen told the accused.
“It’s a matter of think before you engage any part of your body, your mouth, your hand.
“If someone says something to you, just let it go. It’s not worth it.”
On 6 October, the accused – with his brother as a passenger – parked his Suburu WRX in a disabled parking bay at Waverley Gardens shopping centre, Mulgrave.
According to an agreed prosecution summary presented in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court this month, the victim stopped his car behind and his wife challenged the brothers over whether they had a disabled permit.
The accused then verbally abused the pair, telling them to mind their own business and wielded a hammer from his car’s boot.
The victim picked up a tyre-lever from his driver’s side door well, stepping out of the car and raised the lever “to protect himself and his wife”, the summary stated.
The accused grabbed the lever and threw it across the car park.
According to the police informant, the accused then pushed the victim backwards with a “large amount of force”.
In a police interview, the accused said he had wanted to teach the victim a lesson but denied “forcefully” pushing the victim.
The accused’s brother pleaded guilty to assault-in-company, and was convicted and fined $1000.
