Reckless driving lands Joel Norberry, 20, in Dubbo Local Court

Joel Norberry, 20, of South East Dubbo, was convicted in Dubbo Local Court on July 27, 2023 of:

Norberry, who had his learners licence disqualified from April 11 until October 11, 2023, was seen by police driving an unregistered motorcycle along a footpath along Wheelers Lane on May 28, 2023 around 4.20pm.

According to court documents, as police passed Norberry, they saw he wasn't wearing a helmet and instead, had a white trucker hat on top of his mullet.

Upon seeing the police, Norberry rapidly accelerated the motorbike to about 80 kilometres per hour as he rode along the footpath.

Court documents state police believed he was driving recklessly and would have caused extreme danger to any pedestrians that could have been using the footpath.

Police began looking for Norberry who had abandoned his bike at the rear of a property along Banksia Street.

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As police entered, they spotted Norberry, who had run through the side of the property into the front of the house.

Having briefly lost sight of Norberry, police noticed his white trucker hat and a black jumper had been tossed into a gutter along Wheelers Lane.

A number of passing motorists also told police Norberry was around the corner.

Police saw Norberry, who began running onto a nearby oval, as they turned onto Birch Street.

Police chased Norberry before he was caught on the field.

According to the documents, Norberry was apologetic to police before he was taken to Dubbo Police Station.

Legal Aid solicitor Scott Affleck explained to the court Norberry couldn't afford to participate in the young offenders traffic program, after his most recent job fell through.

Magistrate Aaron Tang then asked if "he could afford to go to jail".

"No, he can't," Mr Affleck said.

Magistrate Tang said Norberry had a number of traffic offences on his record, he had tried to evade police and was not engaged in a traffic program.

Then after private discussions, Norberry signed up to the Traffic Offenders Program.

"You've been dragging your heel for months and months ... but to your credit, you've enrolled kicking and screaming," Magistrate Tang said.

"Hopefully you will learn from what's taught and you may hear from people that have been impacted ... including people that have had family members' heads cut off from people driving like lunatics such as yourself."

Magistrate Tang said the offences Norberry committed were "serious" and he had lost his "privilege" to be on the road.

"There is no excuse for the driving in question and you can't seek leniency because it demonstrates a total disregard for the court and community's safety," he said.

"You were driving 80 kilometres an hour on a footpath in the middle of the day, people were at risk of being killed or injured.

"It's all made more serious by the fact you were already on a community correction order, do you need to go to jail?

"I've got to give you a sentence to stop you doing this and to protect the community. Will you drive like this until you kill someone or yourself?"

Norberry was sentenced to a six month intensive correction order. He was also fined $752 and must do 40 hours of unpaid community service work.

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