By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A driver said he had no recollection of sliding onto the wrong side of the road, forcing a fully-laden fuel tanker to take evasive action during a police chase through Dandenong and Rowville, a court heard.
“F***, sounds pretty serious,” Bodhan Dunn, 25, later told police.
“I honestly don’t remember.”
In June 2018, an unmarked police car followed Dunn as he dramatically accelerated and braked, wove through traffic and veered out of lanes on Princes Highway, Clow Street and Stud Road.
Dunn turned onto Wellington Road, accelerating rapidly and losing traction into the path of the fuel tanker.
Police told the court that a serious crash was avoided only due to the truck driver’s evasive action.
At another turn at a Wellington Road intersection, he skidded across three lanes. He travelled down EastLink without registering a toll due to the false number plates on his unregistered blue Holden.
Back on Princes Highway, he ran a red light. He deliberately fishtailed for about 80 metres on Heatherton Road before he was boxed in by police.
At the time, Dunn – a suspended driver on a 0.00 blood-alcohol interlock condition – smelt of liquor, police claimed.
He refused to give a breath test; a disconnected interlock was found in the driver’s side footwell.
Police told the court that the inside edges of the Holden’s bare rear tyres were worn down to their wire frames.
Dunn pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and a string of traffic offences.
He also admitted to charges of criminal damage for smashing his mobile phone and then flinging a second phone through his mother’s TV screen.
Dunn’s priors included drink-driving, dangerous driving, recklessly causing injury and assault, the court heard.
On 30 July, Dandenong magistrate Tara Hartnett described the driving as “appalling, appalling offending”, and the criminal damage revealing “shocking attitude”.
“This offending is really serious. That episode of driving that you appeared not to have any memory of put that truck driver and others at enormous risk of serious injury.”
Ms Hartnett said Dunn would face immediate jail but for the driving offences being more than 12 months old.
Instead she was considering a community corrections order to minimise his risk of re-offending – taking into account his young age, Aboriginal background and family support.
He was bailed to appear on 31 July for a community corrections order assessment and sentencing.
