By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A LATE-BLOOMING ice addict has led police in a chase in a stolen van before fleeing by foot through yards and onto a rooftop in Dandenong.
A court heard Paul Alexander Donnell, 42, had been reported loitering suspiciously in the stolen white Hilux around Allan Street, Dandenong, on a late March morning.
An unlicensed Donnell drove across Stockmans Bridge, then reversed, turned around and drove away at speed from a marked police car on George Street.
He drove into an underground car park in Hutton Street and fled on foot, scaling several home fences and climbing onto a roof.
Donnell, who was on a community-based order at the time, was arrested in a Scott Street yard with women’s earrings in his pocket.
The van had been stolen from a Princes Highway business yard between 12-14 March, though Donnell asserted he had recently found the van “abandoned” in a street with keys in the ignition.
He claimed some of the wide array of women’s jewellery and clothing, an Australia Post parcel, bank and ID cards were already in the van when he discovered it.
He also found foreign currency and bank cards in hard rubbish piles while driving around Dandenong in the van in the past two days, Donnell told police.
Donnell’s lawyer told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 11 April that his client should have reported the van and its contents to police.
“It was found property that belonged to someone else.”
Donnell didn’t realise police were trying to intercept him when he performed a U-turn in front of them on George Street, the lawyer said.
Donnell had descended into drug use, homelessness and criminality for the past five years due to a marriage breakdown, the court was told.
The accused had then been rocked by the disappearance of his own removalist business’ van, presumed either stolen or impounded, the lawyer said.
“When finding the thing to get his life back on track was missing, it hit him hard.”
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said it must have been hard for Donnell’s parents, who sat in the court gallery, to see their middle-aged son in court.
Mr Vandersteen said he wouldn’t place Donnell on another community corrections order due to a history of non-compliance.
Donnell was jailed for 180 days, including 18 days spent in remand custody.
