by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A foul-mouthed man who allegedly blocked police cars and threatened officers at two hoon hotspots in Pakenham and Springvale has been spared jail.
Declan Adam Bailey, 22, of Cranbourne North, was offered a community corrections order for more than 30 offences during a sentence indication at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 15 December.
Police agreed that a “lengthy and stringent” CCO was within range if Bailey pleaded guilty.
In October 2022, Bailey was on bail at the time when he stood in front of a police patrol car and refused to let it pass on two occasions at a high-revving car meet at Springvale Mega Mart on Princes Highway.
“You hit me b****, see what happens,” he told an officer in the car.
Police described him as pacing back and forth in a menacing way, “smiling and laughing” and demanding to see the regional police supervisor of the anti-hoon Operation Achilles.
“He knows me,” Bailey told them.
After police back-up arrived, he was arrested.
In a similar stand-off in Hogan Court, Pakenham three nights later, Bailey leaned on a police car bonnet in an “aggressive” manner, appearing to film them as he shone his phone’s torch into the officer’s eyes.
“I can still see your face, f***stick,” he told an officer.
While standing in front of the car, he called out to the patrol car officers that “you’re f***ing hitting me, bro” and to “stop driving, c***”.
Other associates illegally parked two cars nearby, hemming in the police car as Bailey threatened them: “Are you going to keep going or are you going to get out?” and he launched himself on the bonnet.
Bailey also damaged the police car’s front bumper as he tried to peel off its number plate.
Police eventually spotted an opening and escaped in their car.
Bailey’s charges included intentionally obstructing police, using intimidation against a police officer, affray, damaging a police car’s bumper and indecent language.
He also faced multiple counts of disqualified driving across the South East, using a phone while driving and stalking.
Other offences were breaching a family-violence intervention order, taking a sex tape of a woman without her permission and sharing the intimate image on group chats.
He also used a victim’s licence details exchanged after a car crash to buy a SIM card and to access the private emails of his girlfriend’s ex-partner.
There were other charges of breaching night curfew bail conditions, riding a motorbike without a helmet, illegally recording a court hearing and texting screenshots.
His defence lawyer said Bailey was prone to manic or hypermanic episodes, and to “attention-seeking and stupid behaviour” in order to be liked.
Bailey had since “genuinely changed his life” after spending a night in custody earlier this year, the lawyer said.
He had “stabilised” on psychiatric medication for the first time in his life, as well as other therapy for borderline personality disorder, bipolar, ADHD and high-functioning autism.
He’d not reoffended, was working six days a week and cut off “all negative peer groups”.
Magistrate Tony Burns noted Bailey’s “extensive” mental health issues, and that Bailey’s friends were “laughing at him and not with him”.
Bailey was sentenced to a 30-month CCO with 300 hours of unpaid work and treatment.
He was disqualified from driving for six months, and ordered to compensate Victoria Police $1762 for the damaged bumper.
