STATE OF TASMANIA v AMANDA MAREE PHILLIPS 26 JUNE 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Amanda Phillips, you plead guilty to carjacking and dangerous driving. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to evading police, being a driver involved in a crash and failing to stop, resisting a police officer and failing a requirement to undergo an oral fluid test.
All of these offences were committed on 11 November 2025. At about 2.10 pm you were a passenger in a car being driven by your friend. When it was stationary at the traffic lights at the intersection of Paterson and Wellington Streets in Launceston you left that car and ran into the intersection. You ran into the path of oncoming vehicles and yelled at them to stop. Some cars swerved to avoid you, but one young man, who was driving his mother’s Toyota Corolla along Wellington Street, stopped so he did not hit you. You went to his car, opened the driver’s door and demanded he get out. You grabbed the collar of his shirt while preventing him from removing the keys from the ignition. You threatened to stab him. It is not asserted that you had or produced a knife, but after you made the threat he raised his hands and submitted to you. He left the car and you got into the driver’s seat. Many other people saw this happening. An off duty police officer identified herself and attempted to arrest you. However you resisted her efforts to open the door and drove away. She had to jump back to avoid being hit or dragged along by the car.
You then embarked on a course of dangerous driving through central Launceston. I was not informed of the total duration of the driving, but it was described as follows. After stealing the car you drove up Wellington Street towards the Launceston General Hospital. Outside the hospital, on Charles Street, you drove on the wrong side of the road and into the hospital complex the wrong way down a one way entrance. You ran into the emergency department before returning to the car and accelerating rapidly, crashing into a bollard, and then driving the wrong way out a one way entrance again onto the incorrect side of Charles Street. You drove to the roundabout at the intersection of High Street and David Street, more than a kilometre away, before driving back down Howick Street into Charles Street on the wrong side of the road. By this time road spikes had been deployed before the roundabout at the intersection of Charles Street and Franklin Street. You drove into the path of oncoming traffic to avoid them. You overtook five vehicles before mounting the traffic island dividing the lanes where you collided with and destroyed the centre road sign. You drove straight over the roundabout and continued along Charles Street on the wrong side of the road. The speed limit there is 40 kph but the police estimated your speed at 60 kph. You continued past Balfour Street still on the wrong side of the road. Along Charles Street many other vehicles had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. You were swerving and losing control while driving at speed. You drove over the roundabout at the intersection with Canning Street, swerved and struck the kerb. You drove through a red light onto Frederick Street, swerving and driving onto the wrong side of the road. On Frederick Street you narrowly avoided collisions with two separate vehicles. Without attempting to slow down you drove into the intersection with Frederick Street and Wellington Street against a red light. The result was that the passenger side of your car was struck by a car being driven by Andrew Thompson travelling on Wellington Street. After the collision you left the car you had been driving and ran off, without speaking to the driver of the other car. You fled on foot but were arrested a couple of blocks away. Even then, you violently resisted the police.
When you arrived at the police station you refused a requirement to provide a sample of your oral fluid for analysis. You spat the swab onto the ground.
I was given details of your personal circumstances by your counsel and in a report prepared by a forensic psychologist, Dr Georgina O’Donnell. You are about to turn 34. In your life you have experienced many disadvantages. As a child you were exposed to family violence and drug use. Your education was limited. You lived with your grandparents from age eight and you have been without stable housing since they died a few years ago. You have four children aged between 7 and 16 although none are in your care. You have been the victim of very serious family violence yourself.
Your record of offending begins when you were a teenager and includes driving offences, dishonesty, some violence and a range of anti-social behaviour. There are no prior convictions for dangerous driving, but you have three prior convictions for evading police, two committed on the same day in 2011 and one in 2015. However the only period of imprisonment you have previously served was 28 days in 2023 when you were sentenced my a magistrate for bail offences, disturbing the peace, common assault, abusing, resisting, obstructing, threatening and assaulting police, destroying property and possession of drugs.
It was submitted that your mental health is relevant to sentence. Dr O’Donnell noted in her report that a hospital recorded in 2012 that you presented with features of Borderline Personality Disorder. It is a condition which commonly develops as a result of chronic childhood trauma and perceived abandonment. If that condition is present it can lead to symptoms including chronic anxiety, impulsivity and reckless behaviour. It is not a diagnosis Dr O’Donnell made herself. Dr O’Donnell’s opinion is that your moral culpability is reduced, and that prison may way more heavily on you and risk adversely affecting your mental health. However there is little in the text of her report to support those propositions and it is a proposition to which I attach little weight. The overwhelming factor in your behaviour was the illicit drugs you had used. Dr O’Donnell said that a differential diagnosis of your mental health conditions is difficult because of your severe alcohol and drug use since childhood. You have been addicted to morphine, used speed, ecstasy and heroin, but most particularly cannabis and methylamphetamine. You were affected by both of those drugs at the time of these crimes. Your condition was extreme. When you were admitted to hospital after your arrest, you were so severely agitated and aggressive that you were sedated and intubated. You were stabilised over about two days in hospital but when discharged into police custody your behaviour remained problematic. With the passage of time your mood and behaviour have improved. That may be because of regularisation of your medication, but Dr O’Donnell attributes this principally to forced cessation of illicit drug use. In those circumstances there is little evidence of a connection between these offences and an impairment of mental functioning arising from a mental health condition. Even if it were the case that your personality disorder underlies your drug use you must have been aware of the possible effect drug use had on you. Particularly for driving offences, use of illicit drugs is aggravating. Protection of the public is a strong sentencing factor.
You are to be sentenced for serious offences. There are no victim impact statements but the original carjacking, accompanied as it was by your violence and threat to stab the victim, must have been traumatising and requires punishment independently of what followed. The carjacking involves separate criminality and the interests of the victim are to be recognised. The car you stole was destroyed. What then occurred was a serious case of dangerous driving. It took place on some of Launceston’s busiest streets when the traffic was heavy and it had been raining. Driving into a very busy intersection at speed against a red light was a particularly dangerous thing to do and it resulted in an actual collision. In addition there were many near misses involving actual danger to other road users. These were places, especially around the hospital, where there was also likely to have been heavy pedestrian traffic. The manner and speed of your driving posed a grave risk. You were badly affected by illicit drugs. It is pure luck that someone was not killed or injured. Damage was done to the car you stole, to the car you eventually collided with and to other public property along the way. You are not to be punished twice for the conduct which amounted to evading the police, but the fact that you were evading the police added the factor of desperation to the driving and decision-making. For that offence you are liable to higher penalties as a subsequent offender. It is in your favour that you pleaded guilty at an early stage and, as a result your sentence will be reduced, and parole eligibility permitted at the earliest opportunity. However, the seriousness of the crimes, and the need to impose a sentence which not only punishes you but makes clear to others the consequences of such offending, means that a significant term of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence.
I am required to impose a separate sentence for evading the police. You have been in custody since your arrest on 11 November 2025. I will make orders of concurrency or accumulation of terms in order to achieve what I consider to be a just and appropriate overall outcome.
You are convicted on each count on complaint 36884/2025. On count 1, carjacking, you are sentenced to imprisonment for nine months from 11 November 2025. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of that term. On count 2, evade police, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months to be served cumulatively to the term imposed on count 1. You are disqualified from driving for two years from your release from custody. On that count 1 make no order as to parole. On count 6, failing a requirement to undergo an oral fluid test, you are sentenced to imprisonment for three months, also cumulative to the term imposed on count 1 but concurrent with the sentence on count 2. I make no order as to parole on that term. On that count you are disqualified from driving for one year from your release. On the remaining counts, counts 3, 4 and 5, dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene of a crash and resisting police, I impose one sentence, a term of imprisonment of 21 months, to be served cumulatively to the term on count 1 but concurrent with the other terms. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of that term. You are disqualified from driving for four years from your release. Any driver licence you have is cancelled.
The total result is a term of imprisonment of two years and six months from 11 November 2025 with eligibility for parole after having served half that total term, and disqualification from driving for four years from your release.