Speeding Warrnambool motorist avoids jail sentence following appeal

Jarrod Brown, 39, of Warrnambool, pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court last year to dangerous driving at speed and was jailed for three months.

He was also placed on a 12-month correction order with 100 hours of unpaid community work.

On Thursday, he appealed against the severity of the sentence in Warrnambool County Court.

He avoided a jail sentence and was instead sentenced to an 18-month correction order with 150 hours of unpaid work.

His driver's licence was disqualified for 18 months, backdated to April 2021.

The court heard that on June 13, 2020, Brown was clocked riding a motorcycle at 140km/h in Warrnambool's Harris Street - a signed 60 km/h zone - about 5.30pm.

It was the fourth time the man had been caught driving at excessive speeds after incidents in 2014, 2017 and 2018.

Brown said that at the time of the offending, he was riding solo on a motorbike after going through some personal issues and was angry and not thinking clearly.

He claimed no other road users were at risk and that he was an experienced rider, having driven a motorcycle since he was aged four.

Barrister Cameron Baker said Brown was taken into custody in November last year and strip-searched, handcuffed and lodged in a police cell for about an hour before successfully applying for appeal bail.

It was an experience his client found traumatic, he said.

Mr Baker said Brown had since engaged in counselling, was undergoing a mental health plan and had attended a road trauma awareness program, in which participants visit hospital patients who have suffered significant injuries in road accidents.

Judge Michael Cahill said he had this week sentenced two people for dangerous driving causing death.

"They were two tragic cases where three people were killed as a result of persons driving motorcars in a manner far less dangerous than the way you rode your motorbike," he said.

"The community is fortunate that those sorts of dreadful consequences didn't attach to your riding."

The judge said Brown was angry and he channelled his aggression into his motorcycle.

He said the offending was serious but he accepted Brown had taken "admirable steps" to address his issues.

"I don't intend to impose a jail sentence, notwithstanding the outrageous danger of him riding a motorcycle at speeds of 140 km/h in a 60 km/h zone where he could easily have killed not only himself but perhaps an innocent pedestrian or cyclist," the judge said.

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