{"id":619028,"date":"2026-10-03T02:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619028\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T02:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:20:13","slug":"man-charged-after-toddler-filmed-behind-the-wheel-of-ute-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619028\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged after toddler filmed behind the wheel of ute in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Perth man has been charged with reckless driving after a video of a three-year-old behind the wheel of a ute was posted to social media.<\/p>\n<p>Jake Douglas Smith, 33, uploaded the video on September 11, which appeared to show the toddler on his lap behind the wheel of a Toyota Hilux as it was driven through a residential suburb in Perth, police said.<\/p>\n<p>The car could be seen accelerating and drifting into the wrong side of the road before mounting a curb and stopping on a front lawn.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/video-showed-the-unrestrained-three-year-old-sit-on-the-mans-7BRT2IMHYFANVFD27ZMKPHGPVA.jpg\" alt=\"Video showed the unrestrained three-year-old sit on the man's lap, steering the vehicle on a residential street.  \" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Video showed the unrestrained three-year-old sit on the man&#8217;s lap, steering the vehicle on a residential street.   (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n<p>Police allege the child appeared to &#8220;have control&#8221; of the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The video Smith posted online was captioned &#8220;3-year-old driving a Hilux, what a legend&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Smith was arrested the day after the incident and appeared in the Joondalup Magistrates Court on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the court, Smith told reporters his lawyer was &#8220;Jesus Christ&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Perth man has been charged with reckless driving after a video of a three-year-old behind the wheel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-619028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}