A serial road menace will spend more time in custody after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and violence offences.
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Benjamin Jennings, 38, of Portland, drove at 174km/h on the Hamilton Highway, fled police at more than double the speed limit and crashed into a pole and then a tree during a raft of dangerous driving incidents last year.
On Thursday he pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court to the offending, as well as to unrelated charges involving the assault of a woman and criminal damage at a residential property.
The court heard he didn't hold a driver's licence when he was clocked at 174km/h on the Hamilton Highway at Cressy on February 11 last year about 7.30pm.
Then on February 23, he was observed by police driving a green Holden Commodore station wagon north on Portland's Percy Street at 3am.
Jennings left the OTR service station, crossing over double white lines and through a roundabout at speed.
Police members activated their blue and red lights to intercept the wagon but Jennings took off at speed.
The pursuit was abandoned.
He was identified through CCTV from the service station.
Jennings attended the Portland police station the following day by appointment, he admitted the offending and said his mind "must have been somewhere else".
The poor driving continued on April 8 when the same station wagon was observed in Coolibah Court at 10.15pm.
Police, aware the man did not hold a licence for medical reasons, attempted to intercept him but he fled at speed, reaching speeds in excess of 100km/h in a 50km/h zone.
The court heard Jennings was caught driving unlicensed again on May 28 and May 30.
The following month he was driving his partner's 2005 Nissan Patrol in Port Fairy.
Just before 3am Jennings overcorrected the vehicle, sideswiping a power pole and then spinning at an 180-degree angle before crashing into a tree, causing unrepairable damage to the car.
He was not wearing a seatbelt.
He fled the scene, leaving 19 grams of cannabis on the ground outside of the door.
Jennings also pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman to the face, spitting on her and causing criminal damage at a residential property.
The court heard he had served 67 days in custody on remand.
Magistrate Jelena Popovic ordered the man be assessed for a community corrections order.
She adjourned the matter until June 16 when Jennings is expected to be released from prison.
He will have spent three months in custody on remand by that time.
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