Confusion has reigned in court as a drug-driver admitted driving at an acting sergeant during a Canberra police pursuit, which only ended after he crashed and found himself upside down in a garden.
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Codie James Rowlands, 25, fronted the ACT Magistrates Court via audio-visual link from the Alexander Maconochie Centre on Thursday and pleaded guilty to five charges laid over last December's incident.
These were driving dangerously and failing to stop for police, driving at police, drug-driving, driving while disqualified and driving while using a handheld mobile phone.
Magistrate Robert Cook was midway through committing Rowlands to the ACT Supreme Court for sentence when prosecutor David Armstrong asked him to hold off because a fresh charge of unlawfully possessing stolen property needed to be laid first.
"Who's that dude?" Rowlands asked from the video screen, apparently unsure who was speaking.
After stopping to consider what to do, Mr Cook shelved plans to put the case in the Supreme Court's drug and alcohol sentencing list on August 5 and decided to keep it before himself for the moment.
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As Rowlands left the remote room at the jail, where he remains on remand, he waved to his mother, who was sitting in the court's public gallery.
"I just wanna say 'I love you' to my mum," he said as his mother blew kisses towards the screen.
When the Richardson man was arrested on December 28, ACT Policing said officers had pursued him through Canberra's southern suburbs as he drove a stolen Kia vehicle on footpaths in a bid to get away.
Police said Rowlands had only narrowly avoided hitting pedestrians and cyclists.
"When cornered in a cul-de-sac, the driver accelerated directly at police, colliding with their vehicle [and] causing the Kia to plunge through a fence and roll multiple times onto its roof," ACT Policing said.
"[Rowlands] then ran from the scene before being apprehended a short distance away."
The 25-year-old is due to appear before Mr Cook again on Friday morning, by which time Mr Armstrong said he hoped the fresh charge would be ready.
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