Scott James Coleman, 31, of Duke Street, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court to armed robbery, recklessly causing injury, trafficking ice, dangerous driving while pursued by police and stealing petrol valued at $80.

​He will have to serve a minimum of three years and six months before being eligible for parole and has already served 252 days of that sentence.​

Crown prosecutor David Cordy said Coleman was on bail at the time of the offending charged with theft, possessing ice and a weapons offence.

At 6pm on June 18 last year a Ballarat man went to the home of a friend as he wanted to go for a drive in his 2009 Holden Commodore.

They drove to Wendouree where they met Coleman and ​four men then went to North Ballarat where ​Coleman had arranged to picked up drugs.

The men argued as Coleman wanted to drive to Hamilton.

He told the car owner he had more drugs on his than th car was worth and they drove to ​Hamilton and then ​Heywood where Coleman sold ice to another man, Jason Ford.

The car owner was invited into the house “at his own risk”.

But, soon after he returned to the car.

Coleman armed himself with a claw hammer, approached the car and sruck the victim twice to the head with the hammer.

The victim called​ out ​“what are you doing Tripper?”

Coleman told the victim to get out of the car, saying “you’re bleeding on it”.

The victim got out and ran up the road chased by a ​dog​.

He headed towards Heywood, was picked up​ by a passerby​, police were called and ​the victim was taken to the Portland Base Hospital for treatment to a laceration above his right eye.

Coleman and the other men then got in ​the​ car and headed back towards Ballarat.

​They stopped at a service station and one of the men was seen using paper towel to clean up ​the victim's ​blood in the car.

At 2.37am Hamilton police saw the Commodore, activated their emergency ​lights and ​siren, but Coleman accelerated away and a pursuit was terminated.

The Holden was seen in Kent Street heading west soon after and Coleman accelerated, driving directly at the divisional van.

Police braked to avoid a collision and Coleman ​again ​accelerated away.

The Holden was last seen heading east on the Glenelg Highway near Dunkeld travelling at more than 150km/h.

Coleman was also involved in an $80 petrol drive-off at Ballarat that morning.

The vehicle was located at ​Redan and Coleman was arrested on July 11.

He was unconscious and being treated by ambulance officers. 

Coleman had a black-handled claw hammer down his pants and there was another hammer in the car.

Police also seized his mobile telephone and found that it contained a large number of text messages relating to the armed robbery and trafficking ice.

​Judge Felicity Hampel said the victim of the hammer assault recalled in a victim impact statement the extent of his physical injuries, he now had trust issues, avoided Ballarat and his car had been extensively damaged.

She said the police officers that Coleman drove at felt certain they were going to be injured or killed.​

Coleman started using cannabis at 12 year of age, progressed to heroin and was using ice heavily at the time of the offending. 

​During his last​ eight months in custody ​he was also involved in an incident and had to be moved to another jail. 

​Judge Hampel said Coleman had little good fortune during his life and he had a frightening number of appearances for serious offences including armed robberies, violence, causing damage, drugs and aggravated burglary.

Since becoming an adult he's been in court frequently for widespread offending involving blackmail, drugs, weapons, violence and causing damage.

"It's a sad and sorry history," she said.

The judge said Coleman was on a treadmill of offending, being caught, going to prison and then being released but at 31 years old she hoped he was maturing.

He lost contact with his siblings in his teenage years and in the past couple of years his grandmother, mother and a sister have died.

But, his father has turned around his life living in Hamilton and Coleman plans to go back to live with him when released from jail.

Judge Hampel said Coleman had been involved in a disgraceful episode of offending and a lengthy jail sentence was inevitable.