Rebels bikie Christopher Cunningham has jail sentence extended over road rage, police pursuit

Police found the man trembling near his car following the frightening October 2021 confrontation with gang member Christopher John Alwyn Cunningham, 35, in Wanniassa.

Cunningham, who was jailed in December for shooting a different man, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight driving charges.

He committed those offences, including aggravated furious, reckless or dangerous driving and failing to stop for police, in four incidents between October 2020 and November 2021.

Magistrate Robert Cook added more than nine months to the bikie's already lengthy jail sentence, which had previously been due to end in September 2024.

Mr Cook also tacked nearly two months onto Cunningham's non-parole period and extended the Calwell resident's existing driving disqualification by more than 11 years.

Agreed facts, tendered in court, show police came across Cunningham's "highly distressed" road rage victim while on patrol.

The man told officers Cunningham, who had been driving a green Ford Falcon in defiance of a disqualification, had sped past his Holden Cruze and cut him off a few minutes earlier.

Having become enraged by the victim beeping at him in response, Cunningham stopped in the middle of the road and approached the Cruze.

After verbally abusing the victim, Cunningham, who was wearing a Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang jumper, grabbed the keys from the man's ignition and hurled them away.

Police identified Cunningham as the offender using footage from the victim's dash cam.

Before officers had acted on that incident, Cunningham set about continuing what his lawyer, Tich Pasi, described on Thursday as a "string of bad behaviour behind the wheel".

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A month later, yet again defying orders to stay off the roads, Cunningham drove himself to the ACT Supreme Court in Civic to attend his trial over the shooting.

Officers watched him head back to his Falcon in heavy rain at the end of the day and tried to pull him over, but Cunningham immediately crossed to the wrong side of the road and ran a red light before taking off at speed along London Circuit to lose pursuing police.

Police arrested him outside court later in the trial, which ended with him admitting his guilt, and he has been behind bars ever since.

He appeared via audio-visual link from the Alexander Maconochie Centre on Thursday, when prosecutor Lauren Knobel described his offending as "contumacious".

Ms Knobel asked Mr Cook to disqualify Cunningham from driving indefinitely, saying the 35-year-old had repeatedly placed members of the public at risk on the roads and "verbalised his lack of remorse".

She said Cunningham had recently told the author of a court-ordered report that he planned to continue driving upon his release from custody even if he was still disqualified.

But Mr Pasi said Cunningham had made that statement, which the offender now regretted, while "frustrated and angry".

He told the court Cunningham, a father of four children, including a daughter born since his incarceration, was "making efforts to turn the corner".

The lawyer added that Cunningham wished to apologise to the court for his "misbehaviour" behind the wheel, and to the road rage victim who was "traumatised" by the October episode.

Mr Cook ultimately declined to order an indefinite driving disqualification, but the magistrate expressed concern in sentencing that Cunningham appeared to be a "totally high risk of reoffending" unless his attitude changed substantially prior to his release.

"I hope that you do change," he told the offender.

While Cunningham will now be eligible for parole in August 2023, he told the court he would not apply for early release and that he would instead stay behind bars until the July 2025 expiry of his new total sentence.

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