![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/69c26bf0-nxk12ee215hrpl8_4cgzu.jpg\")
Justice Robert Pearce ruled against the teenager\u2019s appeal. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\nA teenager with a \u201cproblem with cyclists\u201d who deliberately drove within centimetres of them has failed to have his sentence overturned, with a Supreme Court judge ruling the punishment was appropriate.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old, who cannot be named, was convicted of two counts of reckless driving after targeting groups of cyclists on two separate occasions along the West Tamar Highway at Riverside in late 2023 and early 2024.<\/p>\n
Justice Robert Pearce dismissed the appeal this month, upholding a two-month suspended detention order and a two-year licence disqualification.<\/p>\n
The court heard the teen drove his sedan within 30 centimetres of four cyclists on December 19, 2023, before swerving directly in front of them. <\/p>\n
His passenger shouted at the riders to \u201cget off the road\u201d.<\/p>\n
Justice Robert Pearce ruled against the teenager\u2019s appeal. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n
About a month later, he did the same thing to four different cyclists on the same stretch of road, forcing them onto the verge.<\/p>\n
When police interviewed him, he admitted his driving was \u201cdeliberate and reckless\u201d and said he had a \u201cproblem with cyclists\u201d.<\/p>\n
Justice Pearce said the offending was serious and carried obvious risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA slight deviation by you from your intended path or a slight deviation by a rider from the path anticipated by you could have been disastrous,\u201d he said, quoting the magistrate\u2019s sentencing remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyclists are entitled to use roads without being put at risk in the way that you put them at risk on these occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/69c26bf0-wa6l9az6k3rwfa7_rfizn.jpg\")
His passenger yelled at cyclists to get off the road. Image \/ Stock<\/p>\n
The teen\u2019s lawyers argued the sentence was too harsh and that the magistrate should have obtained a full pre-sentence report before imposing detention.<\/p>\n
Justice Pearce rejected both arguments, finding the magistrate had properly considered the teen\u2019s age, lack of prior convictions, employment and remorse.<\/p>\n
However, he said those factors were \u201csubordinate\u201d to the need for deterrence, given the seriousness of the offending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk of death or serious injury to one or more of the eight cyclists involved was obvious,\u201d Justice Pearce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, the applicant drove intending to use his vehicle to frighten or intimidate so as to give effect to his apparent displeasure that they were on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenager with a \u201cproblem with cyclists\u201d who deliberately drove within centimetres of them has failed to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-279604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}