Hoon, 19, lashes out

A LOCAL hoon driver will lose his most prized possession for three months after the court granted a police application to have his new Holden Commodore impounded yesterday.Shannon Adamson, 19, of Long Gully, has been caught hooning multiple times since gaining his probationary driver’s licence.In May last year he was caught doing burnouts in his own driveway in Long Gully.Then in November he was observed performing a burnout at high speed along Napier Street in White Hills which left a 40-metre tyre mark on the road.Adamson, a local pizza delivery driver, appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates Court yesterday where he was convicted, fined and banned from driving for six months.Magistrate Gregory McNamara also granted a police application to impound his car for three months.Speaking outside court yesterday afternoon, Adamson told The Advertiser there needed to be clearer laws in regards to hooning on private property.“I know what I did was wrong, but I thought because I was on my own property that I would get away with it,” he said.“(In regards to Napier Street) I knew I was doing the wrong thing, I knew that I could be caught and I was. That’s fine and I accept that, but I thought it was different on private property.”Adamson said he had grown up on 13 acres near Maryborough and that he would hoon around in the paddocks on a regular basis.“The police knew I did it, they saw me but they never said anything to me then.” Adamson also claimed a double standard in regards to hoons and drink-drivers.“We get our cars taken off us and possibly crushed soon. What do they (drink-drivers) get? A fine and a few years off the road.”Acting Sergeant Kevyn Hume-Cook of the Bendigo traffic management unit said the law in relation to improper use of a motor vehicle was an “anywhere offence”.“It’s similar to drink-driving in the fact that if you drive a motor vehicle while over the limit it doesn’t matter if you’re on private property.“It’s the same if you spin the wheels deliberately and cause loss of traction to one or more tyres.”