A magistrate says it is "astounding" that an off-duty police officer used his private car to "ram" a dangerous driver's vehicle, questioning the safety and wisdom of the decision.
"It seemed a particularly unnecessary and dangerous action for [the officer] to engage in," magistrate Jane Campbell said while sentencing Bradley Clyde Booth, 30.
Ms Campbell imposed a backdated jail term of a little more than nine months on Thursday, allowing Booth to walk free on a series of good behaviour orders.
She also disqualified him driving until further order of the ACT Magistrates Court.
Booth had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated furious, reckless or dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, using an unregistered and uninsured vehicle, and two counts of unlawfully possessing stolen property.
All charges related to an incident that occurred in August 2022.
Back then, police accused Booth of lurking outside Senior Constable Michael McLean's Throsby home in a Toyota RAV4 that also contained David Miller, 35, and John Brendan Khan, 33.
Police alleged Booth pursued Senior Constable McLean's Ford Falcon when the officer returned home, driving at extreme speeds and causing the off-duty cop to fear for his life.
But the most serious charges levelled at Booth were ultimately dropped, with the cases against Mr Miller and Mr Khan abandoned entirely, after the matter reached court.
And when Booth appeared via audio-visual link from prison to be sentenced on Thursday, a set of agreed facts contained no suggestion the offender had been lying in wait.
Instead, the facts said Senior Constable McLean had spotted Booth speeding along Horse Park Drive after finishing a shift early on the morning in question.
The officer contacted on-duty colleagues and followed Booth in his private vehicle.
Booth ran a red light and hit a top speed of 168kmh, in an 80kmh zone, as marked police cars joined the chase.
During the pursuit, Booth braked suddenly, swerved across lanes at speed, crossed a median strip and drove on a bike path.
At one stage, Senior Constable McLean "rammed" the RAV4, as Ms Campbell put it, but rendered his own Falcon immobile in the process.
A sergeant eventually used a marked police vehicle to stop Booth's car, inside which police found two stolen number plates.
Defence lawyer Taden Kelliher accepted on Thursday a jail sentence was warranted.
But he criticised the actions of the off-duty officer, saying Senior Constable McLean should have disengaged from the pursuit and let his colleagues in marked cars "deal with it".
"How was Mr Booth to know who this bizarre driver was tailing him?" he asked.
Mr Kelliher noted that, while Booth had driven dangerously, police dashcam footage showed the pursuit taking place on "deathly quiet" roads, with few people put at risk.
The defence lawyer also told the court Booth had a "guaranteed bed" available from next Monday at the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.
Prosecutor Hannah Mitchell noted Booth had been on a good behaviour order for aggravated reckless, furious or dangerous driving when he committed the offence again.
Ms Mitchell described Booth as a "contumacious" offender who had "weaponised vehicles", noting most of his 46 previous criminal convictions were driving-related.
She also said he had a poor history of compliance with community-based orders, and had failed to demonstrate insight into how dangerous his behaviour had been.
In sentencing, Ms Campbell said videos of the roughly seven-minute police pursuit, which spanned about 1.9km, showed "a significantly dangerous example of dangerous driving" on the part of Booth.
She said she also had "considerable concerns" about the "wisdom and safety" of Senior Constable McLean's conduct.
Booth, who had spent more than 10 months remanded in custody, was released on Thursday afternoon.
