Ben Thomson fined nearly $8000 for “idiotic” driving offences

A Busselton man is facing nearly $8000 in fines after he mounted a suburban sidewalk in his unlicensed car to escape police pursuit. Ben Thomson appeared in Busselton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to five driving offences, including reckless driving and failure to comply with a direction to stop. On the evening of May 26, Thomson was caught driving a blue Ford Falcon on Bussell Highway when he caught the attention of police due to his car’s expired plates. After police attempted to intercept the vehicle, Thomson accelerated heavily turning into Johnston Avenue in West Busselton. He was later seen at the intersection of Bignall Avenue and Fairway Drive stopped behind two cars waiting to turn. When police again attempted to intercept the car, Thomson mounted two wheels on to the footpath, cutting off the two cars in front of him, turning on to Fairway Drive to escape pursuit. Later that evening the car was located at a shopping complex and when a third escape was attempted, Thomson found himself blocked in and surrendered to police. It was submitted to the court that Thomson regularly “does up” cars to sell and was taking it out to pump up the tyres. When asked why he had not stopped for police, Thomson confessed he did not have a licence and knew the car’s registration had expired. When handing down the sentence, Magistrate Benjamin Tyers deemed the act “idiotic”, saying the cost would have been more than 10 times less had he not attempted to escape police. The final fines included $100 for driving without a licence, $100 for driving an unlicensed vehicle, $200 for driving with expired registration, a half annual licence fee of $212.05, $5000 for failure to stop for police and $2000 for reckless driving to escape pursuit. Thomson’s licence was also suspended for two years.