A recidivist South Albury criminal who rode an unregistered minibike into oncoming traffic in front of police has been jailed.
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The Christmas Day incident was one of three episodes of dangerous riding or driving by Ashton Kitson within a little over three weeks.
The 25-year-old also faced Albury Local Court this week, via a video link to jail, over another set of charges from September.
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Police told the court that Kitson, of Ebden Street, had been charged 49 times by the time he rode the minibike erratically through North Albury on December 25.
Kitson will be released from jail on June 11 after magistrate Richard Funston imposed a 12-month term, with a non-parole period of five months.
Defence lawyer Camille McKay said Kitson had been in custody, bail refused, since January 12.
Kitson had a seriously deprived childhood, she said, having been in the care of his drug-addicted mother between the ages of five and 12.
Ms McKay said the mother's partners during that time were also drug addicts and he constantly lived with the spectre of domestic violence, so he fled home with his two sisters.
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He had experienced lengthy periods of homelessness - while becoming addicted to illicit drugs - though had reconciled with his father and would live with him once released from jail.
The first of the four sets of charges from September 22 related to the theft of a car.
The next was the incident on Christmas Day, when he was seen riding the minibike on Young Street about 7.30pm.
He headed south then crossed the centre median strip and rode directly into oncoming traffic.
Police watched as Kitson mounted the kerb and continued along the footpath.
They caught up with him at the Wilson Street intersection and turned on their lights and sirens.
Kitson "accelerated harshly" and sped through a red light, but it was too dangerous for police to give chase.
Two sets of charges from January 11 involved a pursuit and an incident where Kitson quickly reversed his car out of a North Albury church car park in a failed bid to escape police.
Mr Funston told Kitson a letter he wrote to him "demonstrates you do have insight into your offending".
"The point is, Mr Kitson, the older you get, the no greater expectation there is for you to stand on your own two feet."
Kitson was disqualified from driving for 18 months and fined more than $2000.
