Driver sleeps in drug-laden SUV

By Cam Lucadou-Wells

A man has pleaded guilty to a string of charges after being found asleep at the wheel of an idling car full of drugs, ammunition and suspected stolen goods at a Springvale South intersection.

Jarred Casey almost fell out of the black BMW SUV with false plates when police opened the door about 8.30am on 10 March, police told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court.

Police said the seemingly drug-affected Casey refused to get out. He was described as pumping the brake as if it was the accelerator.

Handcuffed, Casey continued to resist arrest.

From inside the car at the corner of Westall and Heatherton roads, police seized a sawn-off barrel from a shotgun and a live round of 45-calibre ammunition.

Stolen Audi car keys, a knife, diazepam tablets, nine watches, other people’s IDs, a zip-lock bag of “crystalline” substance, stolen number plates and an engagement ring were also seized.

Casey pleaded guilty to charges arising from failing to pay for petrol in a stolen Mercedes Benz at a servo in Heatherton Road on 28 January.

He was charged with assaulting a service station attendant, who had grabbed the keys out of the car.

Casey then tried to steal a parked Suburu Impreza in the servo car park. He threw a Winchester rifle wrapped in a towel through a window into the front passenger seat.

He was also found with a small bag of what police believed to be ice, a small knife and another person’s credit card, police told the court.

Police seized a stolen credit card from the Benz.

Casey was remanded for sentencing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 24 October.