A man has been charged with more than a dozen offences after he allegedly tried to set fire to a petrol bowser on Brisbane’s southside at the weekend before trying to carjack several motorists.
The 56-year-old Sunnybank man was formally charged on Monday afternoon during a bedside hearing at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, where he was taken for assessment following his arrest.
Included in the string of offences was assault, dangerous operation of a vehicle and adversely affected by an intoxicating substance, driving without a licence, endangering particular property by fire, robbery and four charges of serious assault of a police officer.
At the conclusion of the bedside hearing, the man was remanded in custody and was due to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on July 29.
A Brisbane couple recounted how they fought off a man, whom police will allege was the accused, when he tried to steal their new car on Sunday.
Kevin Devenny, 73, and his partner Judy, 69, were sitting at a red light on Mains Road at MacGregor about 9.15am when they were rear-ended and pushed into the middle of the junction.
“We were just minding our own business at the traffic lights, waiting to turn right, and he just shunted up the back with a great big bang,” Mrs Devenny told Sunrise on Monday.
“I thought that the lights had changed and Kevin had forgotten to go so somebody thought we were moving when we weren’t, but we hadn’t [missed the lights].
“We got out of the car and there’s this guy at the car behind us banging on his window and then he started running to us wanting our car keys – which we weren’t going to give him.”
Mr Devenny said his wife threw the keys out of the car and down the road.
“I ran down the road to get the keys back and then he ran after me,” he told Sunrise on Monday.
“Then I chucked them back up the road again, he ran up and got them and got in the car, but he couldn’t start it because it was a keyless start and he didn’t know what to do, so I snatched the keys back off him again.
“Then another fella pulled up in a van and he got into that and was trying to start that one, but me and another fella pulled him out of that van and we were lucky enough that the police came.”
Police said the carjacker had started his crime spree at the Shell service station at the intersection of Mains Road and Turton Street in Sunnybank about 9am.
As he turned into the business, he allegedly clipped a 40-year-old female pedestrian, who was not seriously injured, before going into the shop, threatening staff and stealing some tobacco.
It will be alleged he then poured petrol from a bowser onto the ground, lit it and sped off in his car once again. Thankfully, staff extinguished the small fire before it could explode.
About 15 minutes later, police said the thief crashed into Kevin and Judy Devenny.
It will be alleged he tried to steal their car and two others before being arrested by the police dog squad and bystanders.
Extracted from Brisbane Times