A WANTED man is behind bars after allegedly crashing into an innocent woman while trying to evade police at Lake Macquarie.
Andrew George Barry fronted Toronto Local Court for the first time on Friday since handing himself into police a day earlier.
The 34-year-old Karuah man was refused bail and his case was adjourned to later this month.
Barry was not required to enter pleas to a string of charges stemming from an alleged ordeal on February 29 and an earlier incident police said he was wanted for.
Officers were first called to Victory Parade at Toronto on Thursday morning after reports a man armed with an axe had smashed the window of a brown Ford Territory SUV.
About 9.35am that day, highway patrol police said they spotted a vehicle matching that description travelling north on Five Islands Road at Teralba in heavy traffic.
Police allegedly tried to stop the SUV in the nearby T C Frith Avenue but the driver refused to comply and attempted to evade officers.
The police case is the driver crossed onto the wrong side of the roadway and crashed into at least two other vehicles.
A 30-year-old woman behind the wheel of a Toyota Yaris was taken by ambulance to Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital with a sore back.
She was in a stable condition at the time.
Barry allegedly fled the scene immediately after the collision and officers set up a perimeter and called on the police dog squad.
Before it arrived, police claim Barry returned to the scene and was arrested.
He was taken to Belmont hospital for mandatory testing before he was transported to Toronto Police Station and charged.
Police allege a search of the brown Ford uncovered "the hatchet" in the driver's footwell.
Barry faces charges of police pursuit, having custody of an offensive implement in public, and driving disqualified.
He also faces charges stemming from a separate alleged incident in Maitland days earlier.
