Hoon sentenced to jail after Bendigo burnouts: court

Echuca-raised father of two Ben William Hall, 28, will have a non-parole period of 13 months and lose his licence for two years with 157 days of pre-sentence detention recognised by the court.

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Judge Frances Dalziel told Hall, who pleaded guilty to four charges in the County Court sitting in Melbourne on August 24, that his offending had been "very reckless" and "very immature".

Judge Dalziel said there were "real and serious consequences" for this kind of hoon behaviour.

Hall faced one aggravated charge of recklessly exposing emergency workers to risk by driving, one count of reckless conduct endangering life, a summary charge of dangerous driving and a summary charge of committing an indictable offence while on bail.

The court heard Hall's crimes occurred in an olive Ford Falcon he had purchased from a scrap metal dealer in Benalla for $700 just two days before his offending.

On the night of May 13, 2022, Hall drove the vehicle and parked it on Mundy Street in Bendigo before he and two male passengers walked to The Deck night club and spoke briefly to others before leaving to return to the vehicle around four minutes later.

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The court heard CCTV footage recorded someone saying "get the Mexo (sic) flag out".

Hall drove with the two passengers back towards The Deck where he performed a series of burnouts, swerves across the width of McCrae Street, losing traction, producing smoke from the wheel and making a lot of noise.

The court heard there were a number of people - "presumably patrons of The Deck" - out on the street watching, filming and some "egging-on" the hoons.

Social media footage shows a back passenger holding a large Mexican flag out of the window.

A marked police division van was patrolling the area and stopped on McCrae street across from The Deck with sirens and flashing lights.

During a series of turns, Hall's vehicle impacted the front driver's side corner of the police vehicle causing $1653.14 in damage.

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The court heard after hitting the police vehicle, Hall continued to carry out "a number of loss of traction maneuvers" and "recklessly placed those watching you at risk of death".

When another police car approached, Hall sped off down McCrae Street towards the centre of town, continuing to drive across View Street, turning right into Short Street at high speed, before running red lights at the major intersection of the Midland Highway and View Street.

The court heard Hall overtook numerous other drivers and left gouge marks with a rim of his burst tyre on roads including 3.5km of back streets of Bendigo.

The burnt out shell of the car was found two days later, for which Hall was not charged, and he was arrested on May 14, 2022.

The court was told the father has diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, Asperger's syndrome, anxiety and learning difficulties.

His lawyer described his upbringing as characterised by "extreme instability, disfunction and disruption" though Judge Dalziel said she believed Hall's offending was due more to his immaturity and medical conditions.

His partner and mother-in-law described Hall as a "hands-on father" with a "great work ethic" who had also been a positive support for a friend's child who has ADHD.

Hall has a number of relevant prior appearances before the court.

In 2015, he received a community corrections order without conviction for reckless conduct endangering serious injury, failing to stop on police request and failing to stop after a collision.

In 2017, he was fined $800 in Echuca and ordered to undertake a safe driving program for a loss of traction offence and for being a P-plate driver in a prohibited vehicle.

In December 2022, he was sentenced to 12 months with six months non-parole for a series of offences including:

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