Police officers had to take refuge behind their car when a recidivist driving offender fled from them in a Canberra McDonald's drive-through, then smashed into a petrol bowser at an adjoining service station.
Gungahlin woman Coral-Lee Friebel, 37, spent nearly six months in custody over the incident, providing what magistrate James Stewart described as "a significant wake-up call" when he ordered her release.
According to an ACT Magistrates Court decision published this month, police spotted a Holden Colorado utility in the drive-through at the Molonglo McDonald's about 4.10am on March 30.
Its number plates had been issued to a different vehicle, so police parked in front of it to stop it leaving.
Friebel, who was behind the wheel, disobeyed directions to stop and reversed back down the drive-through, running over a tyre deflation device deployed by officers at the other end.
She crashed into a parked McDonald's delivery truck before heading back into the drive-through, forcing officers now on foot to take cover as she squeezed the utility between the police car and a wall.
After leaving the fast food outlet, the Holden's wheels began "squealing" as they lost traction and the vehicle smashed, head-on, into a petrol bowser at the Ampol service station next door.
Friebel was arrested at the scene and remanded in custody until her sentencing on September 26.
Prior to that day, she pleaded guilty to aggravated furious/reckless and dangerous driving, property damage, drug-driving, driving unlicensed, and using a vehicle with number plates not properly issued.
Mr Stewart also found Friebel guilty of a second property damage charge she had elected to fight.
The court heard Friebel, whose criminal history dates back to 2005 and contains several entries for similar offences, told her lawyer she had used methamphetamine about 48 hours before the incident.
In sentencing, Mr Stewart said it was clear the offender needed help "ridding herself of her romance with illicit drugs and poor human influences" if she was to thrive in the community in a lawful way.
Importantly, the magistrate said, there was a bed available for Friebel to complete a 12-week residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program upon her release from custody.
Finding there was "a real hope of rehabilitation", Mr Stewart sentenced Friebel to time served on remand and a 16-month intensive correction order.
The magistrate also disqualified the 37-year-old from driving for two years, and fined her $600.
He warned that if Friebel had not learned from the "significant wake-up call", her future would probably be "one filled with further sadness and custodial deprivation of liberty".
Prosecutors sought more than $11,000 in reparation orders to reimburse the owners of the delivery truck and the petrol bowser for the cost of repairs.
But Mr Stewart declined to make the orders after finding Friebel was unlikely to have the financial capacity to satisfy them in the near future.
