Bernard Smith is accused of fleeing police multiple times

The first pursuit of Bernard Smith by officers began about 6am last Thursday, but it took a considerable effort over many hours before officers eventually had the 35-year-old in custody.

Smith faces serious charges including drive dangerously while pursued by police and failing to stop on police direction, criminal damage and unlicensed driving.

Cobram Detective Senior Constable David Basham detailed the allegations against Smith in a bail application in Myrtleford Court on Friday.

Smith, 35, is accused of stealing a black Mercedes in Melbourne on March 1.

At 6.07am on Thursday, police patrolling the Sunrise Track in the Warby Ranges near Wangaratta spotted the stolen Mercedes.

The driver, alleged to be Smith, fled as police activated their lights and sirens, driving through a locked steel farm gate fence at a property on Warby Range Road.

Police saw him driving back and forth in a paddock before he then crashed through another fence and eventually fled at a fast rate onto Warby Range Road.

At 9.24am, the Mercedes, with damage to its bumper and exhaust pipe, was spotted on Greta Road at Wangaratta.

Police activated their lights and sirens but the car speed away.

Detective Basham told the court the car was veering all over the road, and accelerated to 160km/h onto the wrong side of road.

The car was then captured on CCTV at a Caltex on Station Street at Cobram, where the driver filled the car and then fled without paying. The car was next seen on the Murray Valley Highway, heading towards Yarrawonga.

It was at that point the police air wing was able to pick up the car's movements. After driving around a number of streets at Yarrawonga, it headed east on the Murray Valley Highway, through Bundalong and then onto the Wangaratta-Yarrawonga Road towards Wangaratta.

At 3.50pm the first attempt to halt the vehicle with stop sticks took place, north of Peechelba.

Smith is alleged to have kept going when that failed, continuing towards Wangaratta.

Stop sticks were again deployed near Kensington Drive at Killawarra, but it is alleged Smith saw the police officers, came to a stop, and did a u-turn.

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He headed back to Peechelba, monitored by the air wing which found his speed to be up to 150km/h.

Stop sticks were used twice more but did not succeed, with Smith allegedly continuing to brake, stop and turn around to drive in the opposite direction each time he saw police.

The fifth attempt to end the pursuit with stop sticks at 4.07pm succeeded, with Smith having to pull over. He then ran on foot into a property on the Wangaratta-Yarrawonga Road, climbed a fence and swum across Boundary Creek into dense bushland.

Police officers searched the area and eventually spotted him hiding behind a tree. He ran again, but was finally in custody after a 300-metre chase.

Detective Basham told the court that the deployment of stop sticks was an inherently dangerous thing for police to have to do.

He said damage to the fences was in the thousands of dollars, and the stolen Mercedes would be a write off.

The court heard Smith was currently on a community corrections order, and had held a Victorian probationary licence but was now unlicensed.

Smith's solicitor Nancy Battiato said Smith denied the theft of the car.

He had told police after his arrest that it came into "his possession" via a third party, named Tim, at the Wangaratta train station about 9am on Thursday morning.

"My client came to be in the possession of the car in Wangaratta, not in Melbourne," she told his bail hearing.

She said Smith's exceptional circumstances for bail included the fact that he suffered from scoliosis and was a caregiver for his mother at Yarrawonga.

Magistrate Peter Mithen denied bail, saying there was "considerable strength" to the prosecution case and the risk of releasing Smith was unacceptable.

"The medical condition was in existence prior to these allegations arising," he said.

"There is a likely custodial sentence in this matter, it fact it's more probable than not."

Smith was remanded to reappear on Friday March 17.

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