A FORMER Tallandoon man last year sentenced over kicking to death a kangaroo which was dragged behind his car through central Wodonga has breached a suspended jail term by driving in NSW when his licence was suspended.
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Nigel Franks was caught driving about 9.20pm on March 30 and admitted after being stopped that he was banned from the road.
He was the holder of a Victorian licence but had been notified it was suspended from December 4 last year to September 8 this year through an accumulation of demerit points.
Franks, 21, of Wagga Road, Lavington, appeared for sentencing in Albury Local Court after a pre-sentence report was previously ordered by magistrate Tony Murray.
Mr Murray said the report was “not very good” with Franks responding poorly to a community-based order in Victoria and being withdrawn from community service work.
“This is just a choice by you to disregard the fact you are not allowed to drive,” Mr Murray said.
He said Franks’ previous matters in Victoria, including a charge of dangerous driving, would be drawn to the attention of authorities.
Mr Murray has directed the court registrar at Albury to notify the magistrate who sentenced Franks last year of the breach.
Franks was put on an 18-month bond, fined $500 and disqualified for two years from September 8.
“You are getting very close to being a habitual traffic offender,” Mr Murray told him.
Magistrate Stella Stuthridge, when sentencing Franks in June last year over the incident with the kangaroo, described his actions as “appalling”.
Franks received six months’ jail suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to charges of careless driving and knocking down the kangaroo with his car, aggravated cruelty to its joey, creating a public nuisance, unregistered driving, breaching a community corrections order and dangerous driving.
The last charge related to dragging the animal through the city.
Ms Stuthridge was told Franks laughed and kicked the kangaroo in the head several times, killing the animal.
He tied the kangaroo to the back of the car with a rope and dragged it through parts of Wodonga.