by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong disqualified driver who stole a car and wrote it off “for the sake of a five-minute joy-ride” has been spared further jail.
Liam Casley, now 22, pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to a string of charges including dangerous driving, disqualified driving, car theft and failing to render assistance after a crash in March 2023.
Casley had got annoyed with a Noble Park man who didn’t want to join him in stealing a car, police had earlier told the court.
As a result, Casley stole car keys and sped off in the man’s Mazda 3 parked in the driveway.
Travelling at fast speed, Casley was unable to stop safely behind slow-moving traffic near the intersection of Corrigan Road and Putt Grove, Keysborough about 7.30pm.
He slammed on the brakes, veered into the rear corner of a vehicle and into another parked Ford Ranger utility.
The latter vehicle was pushed off the road into a residential wall and “considerably damaged”, police told the court.
Casley fled, jumping over a back fence into Manooka Court and escaping in an Uber-driven Subaru Forrester to Frankston.
Less than three weeks earlier, Casley was convicted at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for driving dangerously and five counts of car theft.
As a result, he was disqualifed from driving and on a community corrections order at the time of the crash.
In a statement to the court, the Noble Park victim slammed Casley’s “unforgiveable” and “disgraceful” behaviour.
An apprentice chef, he had depended on his written-off Mazda to get to work and visit family and friends.
With his insurer refusing to pay out, the victim was faced with a $13,000 car-loan debt and no transport- all the sake of a “five-minute joy-ride”, he stated.
Appearing on a prison video link, Casley also pleaded guilty to persistently breaching a family violence intervention order.
This was due to illegally speaking to an ex-partner via several calls made by a “male associate” in prison.
He’d tried to “sweet talk” her into taking him back, despite the non-contact IVO until 2030.
A defence lawyer had told the court that Casley’s breach was well-intentioned and conciliatory, rather than abusive.
The lawyer pointed to sentencing remarks by Victorian County Court judge Carolene Gwynn in June, who jailed Casley over kidnapping and recklessly causing injury to his ex-partner.
Casley’s “considerable” behavioural and mental health issues had been noted by the judge, the lawyer said.
His complex diagnoses included autism, ADHD, borderline personality disorder and PTSD.
For the sake of his rehabilitation, it was vital that an NDIS support package was waiting for Casley when released from remand, the lawyer said.
Casley wasn’t getting those wrap-around supports in custody and wasn’t getting any better, he argued.
In sentencing on 12 August, magistrate Christina Windisch jailed Casley for three months concurrent with his current prison term, so not to interfere with his earliest parole date in late November.
She took into account the “totality” that Casley had been subjected to, his relative youth, his mental health issues and that most of the offending occurred before his current prison term.
She hoped Casley engaged with appropriate supports on his release, warning any further offending would lead to immediate imprisonment.
He needed to consider the significant impact on his victims.
