STATE OF TASMANIA v GAVRILO ASENTIC 4 JUNE 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CUTHBERTSON J
Gavrilo Asentic, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving. I am also dealing with your plea of guilty to the summary offence of driving a motor vehicle whilst a prescribed illicit drug is present in your blood, namely THC, methylamphetamine and amphetamine.
The course of driving to which your plea of guilty relates was highly dangerous. It involved you pursuing another vehicle at a very close distance, at times at speed, on suburban roads and streets. At all times, your partner was in the front passenger seat of the car you were driving. There were two people travelling in the car you were pursuing. This course of driving only ceased when you collided with the car you were pursuing, causing it to spin out and crash.
This course of driving commenced on 11 November 2023 when you were driving home to Launceston in a Kia sedan after visiting a relative in hospital. You pulled up at the intersection of Main Road and Florence Street in Moonah, stopping at a red traffic light. You were in the right hand lane. The other vehicle, a Toyota Hilux Dual Cab Utility driven by Mr Arnott, had also stopped at the lights but in the left hand lane. After this intersection, the two lanes merge into one lane by way of a zip merge. As the two vehicles came through the intersection, Mr Arnott had the right of way as his ute was the length of a car bonnet ahead of your vehicle. You failed to give way to Mr Arnott’s vehicle, which resulted in the front passenger side of your car clipping the rear driver’s side of the ute.
Mr Arnott turned left at the next available street and pulled over. He began to get out of his ute but saw you come around the corner at speed. You appeared angry and aggressive. Mr Arnott decided to drive to the police station instead.
He drove away, down Pierce Street, turned left into Charles Street and then left into Florence Street before again turning onto Main Road. He went through a red traffic light. You followed directly behind him, turning onto Main Road, side by side with Mr Arnott’s ute through the red traffic light. There were other cars travelling through the intersection at the time. This was captured on CCTV.
After entering Main Road, you manoeuvred your vehicle in front of Mr Arnott’s ute and stopped, effectively forcing his vehicle to stop. This occurred outside the entrance to a service station, near where the initial collision occurred, and is also captured on CCTV. You got out of your car, appearing highly agitated and aggressive. Mr Arnott put his vehicle in reverse to drive around your car as you had moved quickly towards his ute and put your hands on the bonnet, yelling and demanding that he get out of the car.
Mr Arnott drove around you and continued north along Main Road. He then turned right onto Albert Road, drove through the Valern Hotel carpark, and then turned right onto Hopkins Street. By this time, your car had caught up with the ute again and was following very closely as Mr Arnott turned left onto Gormanston Road. At this point, both of your vehicles were travelling at approximately 50 kph. You were extremely close to the ute, to the point of nudging it. Mr Arnott increased his speed to approximately 60-70 kph as he approached the Derwent Park Road intersection. At that intersection, Mr Arnott turned right through a red light, with you following close behind.
You continued to pursue the ute on Derwent Park Road, the Brooker Highway, and on Lampton Avenue. Mr Arnott intended to go to the Glenorchy police station, but saw that traffic was banked up at the intersection of Lampton Road and Main Road, so instead turned onto Howard Road. At this point, Mr Arnott was fearful of what might happen to him or his partner should he stop driving.
As your vehicles approached the right hand bend on Howard Road, a number of witnesses stated that both vehicles’ tyres were screeching as they took the bend. It was estimated that your vehicles were travelling at 100 kph on a straight section of the roadway which was a 50 kph zone. Witnesses also stated that your car was approximately one metre behind the ute.
Both of your vehicles turned back onto the Brooker Highway and travelled at speed. You then turned onto Lampton Avenue at the traffic lights. You were both travelling in excess of 100 kph on Lampton Avenue when you accelerated and again attempted to get in front of the ute. The front passenger side of your vehicle struck the rear right section of Mr Arnott’s ute, causing him to lose control of his vehicle. In an attempt to regain control, Mr Arnott steered excessively to the right, resulting in the ute going into a high speed, sideways slide for approximately 78.5 metres before crashing into a business sign, mesh fence and two steel railway tracks used as bollards. Those tracks were sheared at the base. The estimated speed of the ute at the time it began slipping or rotating was 116.7 kph. The total distanced travelled from Main Road to Lampton Avenue by you, in pursuit of Mr Arnott, was approximately 6.5 kilometres.
You did not cease your aggressive conduct. You continued to drive around the corner before parking and walking back towards the ute. As Mr Arnott and his partner, Ms Lee, got out of their car, you came towards them and yelled words to the effect of, “Sucked in cunt, you think you’re so funny, the cops are going to get ya”. Ms Lee called out that she was on the phone to police. Mr Arnott yelled out words to the effect of, “I have a knife in the car, come near me and I’ll get ya”. By this time, witnesses had arrived after hearing the crash.
You returned to your vehicle and drove from the scene. Police, Ambulance Tasmania and the Tasmanian Fire Service attended the scene of the crash shortly after.
You were contacted by police by phone and arrangements were made for you to attend the police station in Glenorchy. You did not attend that appointment but informed police, when contacted again, that you were travelling back to Launceston and you would attend the police station there. You arrived at the Launceston police station at approximately 9.30pm. You signed a driver admission statement and were taken to the Launceston General Hospital for a blood sample to be obtained. The blood sample taken from you returned a positive, but low, result for THC and methylamphetamine. You admitted in your interview with police that you had used methylamphetamine 36 hours before the offending, and admitted to being a pot smoker since you were 19 or 20.
When interviewed about your driving, you admitted to being the driver and being involved in the incident with Mr Arnott’s vehicle. You told police you thought that the ute was pushing its way through at the intersection of Main Road and Florence Street, which resulted in a minor collision between the two vehicles. You did not agree that whichever car was in front, had a right of way. Clearly, you were not aware of the relevant road rules.
You admitted chasing the Hilux around the streets of Moonah and Derwent Park. You admitted forcing the ute to stop on Main Road by pulling up in front of it. You said your partner had got the plate number of the other vehicle but that you did not contact police. You were asked why, and you replied, “I’m just a hot head”. You also told police that you did not trust the plate number.
You made admissions consistent with the description of your driving I have already set out. You told police you were going faster than the ute when you hit it at the end of the pursuit as you were trying to get in front to get them to stop again. You said you stopped nearby and walked over towards the ute, but became fearful for your own safety as the driver had a knife and was walking with two other men towards you. The State does not accept that Mr Arnott had a knife.
At the time of this driving, you held a Victorian driver’s licence. That licence had been suspended as a result of a notice of disqualification issued by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles for an earlier excessive speeding offence. You deny having knowledge of the notice of disqualification and prosecution cannot prove that you were served with it.
As a result of your course of driving, Mr Arnott received minor cuts to his hand and head. Ms Lee, his passenger, received bruising to her upper right arm and minor cuts to her hands. Ms Lee attended a general practitioner and reported suffering from anxiety and insomnia.
I have received victim impact statements from both Mr Arnott and Ms Lee. Mr Arnott reports that driving has become extremely difficult for him since the incident. He has become a very cautious and anxious driver. He also lost his ute, which cost him $15,000, money he had saved from doing overtime and night shifts over a two year period.
Ms Lee was also terrified by your conduct. She is in the course of trying to get her driver’s licence but finds it difficult to get into a car as she is so nervous of driving. As I understand it, she first attempted to get her licence after this incident. She also reports having been nervous in the car with her partner and having nightmares about the crash. Although she received some minor physical injuries, she considers the psychological impact has been more significant. She thinks about how her children could have been left without their mother as a consequence of your conduct.
You have a number of relevant prior convictions. You have received a number of traffic infringement notices for all manner of traffic offences, including speeding. You also have prior convictions for drink and drug driving. You have prior matters for violence, including resist police, assault police, Criminal Code assault, common assault, breaches of family violence order and destroy property. You have received periods of imprisonment, both actual and suspended, for such offending.
In October 2019, you received a suspended period of imprisonment for destroy property which concerned a motor vehicle window. Your last sentence of imprisonment that you were required to serve appears to be one of 14 days’ imprisonment imposed in November 2017 for breaches of bail. You have been the subject of applications to breach suspended sentences. Your record is suggestive of someone who has difficulty managing anger, and who disregards the road rules.
You are 52 years old. You were 50 years old at the time of this offending. I am told you had a stable childhood and had no adverse experiences. You were diagnosed with ADHD when you were five years old. You completed high school and subsequently worked for a number of years in sawmills, labouring, and as a taxi driver. You have two children from two relationships. Your children are now adults. I am told that the relationship with the mother of your youngest child was volatile. Your child was taken into State care at 11 months old after that relationship had broken down. You left Tasmania to live in Victoria to escape this relationship. You returned to Tasmania in 2017, after your father passed away. You have been in your current relationship for seven years. Your partner is pro-social. You live together in Launceston.
At the time of this offending, you had been working again. You had taken time off work to travel down to Hobart to see your mother who was in hospital with significant health issues. I am told that you were not in a particularly good frame of mind at the time of the dangerous driving due to your concerns about your mother’s health.
As to your conduct on the day, you mistakenly believed you had the right of way as you were proceeding through the intersection. You persisted with that view. You also described the driver of the other car veering right in order to avoid a parked car. This led to the initial collision after the intersection. It is not asserted that you intentionally collided with the complainant’s vehicle at that stage. You concede that you were upset as you pursued the other car, and felt you had been wronged during the course of the earlier collision. In your mind, the driver of the other vehicle was attempting to avoid responsibility for that collision. It was in that context that you impulsively commenced the pursuit. Much of the driving occurred within the speed limit. It was only when the complainant sped up that you matched that speed. You do, however, now accept that you should not have pursued the other vehicle. You assert that you did not intentionally collide with the other vehicle at the end of the incident. It was put on your behalf that the complainant’s own manner of driving contributed to the final crash. Your counsel tells me that you accept that your manner of driving caused inherent risk to yourself and others, that you accept that portions of the pursuit were at high speed and there were elements of persistence in that your conduct took place over some distance and over some length of time. I am told that you acknowledge that it was an example of road rage.
It was submitted on your behalf that you co-operated with police and made relevant admissions. It was also submitted that your plea of guilty should be taken into account. Your plea of guilty was entered once prosecution indicated they were not pursuing charges of assault arising from the same course of driving. It appears you resisted entering the plea of guilty to dangerous driving until such time as the facts were agreed.
More recently, your mother has passed away. You have found this difficult as you were close and she was supportive of you. You have had the difficult task of sorting out her belongings and making arrangements with other members of the family. You have been abstinent from amphetamine use for six months. You recognise that your use of the drug has been problematic throughout your life, and in particular does not assist with your mental state.
The State accepts that there is some utility to the plea of guilty and that they bear some responsibility for the delay in the resolution of this matter. It was, however, from their perspective, a plea that was entered at a late time and in circumstances where they had briefed witnesses for the trial.
As this Court has frequently noted, general deterrence, denunciation and the protection of the public loom large as sentencing factors with respect to the offence of dangerous driving. The community is rightly concerned about such dangerous driving behaviour. Your driving put at risk all occupants of the two vehicles, together with other members of the public. Your manner of driving, including at speed and close proximity to the car you were pursuing, was highly dangerous. The potential for an adverse outcome was obvious. It manifested to some extent when the collision occurred which ultimately resulted in the ute spinning out and crashing.
This was an act of pure and simple aggression. You had formed a wrong-headed view about the manner in which the ute had been driven and persisted in pursuing that car in circumstances where it must have been apparent that you were exposing yourself and your passenger to risk, together with the driver and passenger of the other vehicle and the public more generally. You are someone with a history of poor driving and aggressive conduct. You should not have been driving at all given the drugs you consumed. It is not, however, suggested that the drugs in your system were relevant to your dangerous manner of driving. In my view, a sentence of imprisonment is required in all of the circumstances. I will, however, afford you the opportunity for parole at the earliest opportunity.
Gravilo Asentic, you are convicted on the charge of dangerous driving on the indictment and count 3 on the complaint, namely the charge of driving a motor vehicle whilst a prescribed illicit drug is present in your blood. On the indictment, you are sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, backdated to 15 May 2026 when you were first remanded in custody. I order that you not be eligible for parole before you have served half of the sentence. You are disqualified from driving for a period of two and a half years from your release from prison.
On the summary charge, I impose a further period of disqualification of six months, cumulative to the period of disqualification imposed on the indictment. I make no further order in light of the sentence I have imposed on the indictment.
I make a compensation order pursuant to s 68(1) of the Sentencing Act 1997 in favour of Scott Dale Arnott, in an amount to be assessed.