STATE OF TASMANIA v DYLAN TUBB ESTCOURT J
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE 6 NOVEMBER 2025
The defendant, Dylan Tubb aged 23 years old at the time of the offending, has pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving and an associated summary offence of evade police (aggravated circumstances.) He held a Provisional 2 driver’s licence at the time.
On 1 August 2024, at about 3:30am, police wishing to speak to the defendant activated emergency lights and pulled into his utility’s path. The defendant drove up close to the police vehicle, before accelerating hard, mounting a nearby footpath and taking off. The vehicle turned right off Alma Street onto Cambridge Road, failing to give way.
Police sighted the vehicle again on Howard Road in Glenorchy at approximately 3:55am. The vehicle was driving with its headlights off as it passed police. Police performed a U-turn and attempted to follow the vehicle. The vehicle did its own U-turn and drove back towards the Brooker Highway on Howard Road. The vehicle was traveling at an estimated speed of 80 kmph in a 50kmph zone.
As the vehicle approached the Brooker Highway, it veered onto the opposite side of the road and turned right onto the Brooker Highway, traveling south in the northbound lane. Police again lost sight of the vehicle near Lampton Avenue.
At approximately 4:00am, the vehicle was again located by police at the intersection of the Brooker Highway and Goodwood Road, traveling in one of the northbound lanes, at over 150kmph, in an 80 kmph zone. The vehicle continued traveling north on the Brooker Highway near the Montrose Bay foreshore. It was travelling at an estimated speed of 150kmph in an 80 kmph zone.
The vehicle was next seen on the Brooker Highway in Granton, turning right at the roundabout onto the Midlands Highway, towards the Bridgewater Bridge. Police estimate the vehicle was traveling at a speed of 85 kmph in a 60kmph zone.
At approximately 4:15am, police successfully deployed road spikes, puncturing all four of the vehicle’s tyres, near the McDonalds takeway on the Midlands Highway. The vehicle veered onto the incorrect side of the road. It travelled on the incorrect side of the road for about 500 metres, before returning to the correct side. The vehicle turned right at the Midlands Roundabout onto the East Derwent Highway. The vehicle’s tyres had essentially disintegrated, leaving the vehicle to drive on its rims.
The vehicle crossed onto the incorrect side of the road and remained on that side for approximately two and a half kilometres. It returned to the correct side of the road after it crossed the Jordan River Bridge. Police had to activate their lights to alert an oncoming vehicle of the incident.
Shortly after crossing the Jordan River Bridge, the vehicle indicated left and spun out of control on the gravel shoulder. The vehicle came to a stop. Two males exited and ran up a nearby steep dirt embankment. Officers pursued the pair and only located the defendant and arrested him.
The defendant submitted to a roadside breath test, which returned a negative reading. The defendant also provided an oral fluid test, which was positive for methylamphetamine. Formal testing confirmed the presence of methylamphetamine and amphetamine in the defendant’s system.
At the time of the driving, the various roads were dry, and traffic was light.
The defendant has no relevant prior convictions. He has had a dysfunctional upbringing as a result of which he left home at age 11. Despite that, he completed his schooling successfully through to the end of year 10. He had the benefit of a friend whose parents assisted him to obtain his driver’s licence, at the age of 17, or shortly after. That allowed him to obtain employment as a heavy machine operator. Something he did so for a number of years.
Unfortunately, his childhood trauma caught up with him, his mental health deteriorated, and he started spending time with friends who used ICE. He managed to refrain, but on a day he accepted he accepted an ICE pipe offered to him, and as is so often the case, that was the start of a rapid descent into a drug addiction. This offending has occurred as a result of that addiction.
Since being held in custody earlier this year, however, he has been abstinent and is motivated to continue to do so by virtue of the fact that his partner is eight months’ pregnant. They have stable accommodation.
Dangerous driving is no longer a summary offence – it is a crime, and is regarded as a serious crime. It almost always attracts a sentence of imprisonment.
The defendant is convicted of dangerous driving and is sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment from today, which sentence I wholly suspend on condition that he commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of 12 months. He is disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for a period of 18 months.
On the summary offence of evade police, the defendant is sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment to be served concurrently with the sentence of 15 months I have just imposed, and suspended on the same conditions. He is also disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for a period of six months’, to be served concurrently with the period of 18 months’ disqualification I have just imposed.