Freed from border patrol, police target hoons in massive weekend blitz
Police released from patrolling border barricades have got the jump on Gold Coast hoons, arresting four people and seizing utes at a large-scale gathering of around 70 vehicles on the Gold Coast.
A crackdown on hoons has netted 59 vehicles. (QPS supplied image).
It is the first in a series of crackdowns under a new blitz on the growing number of mass hoon gatherings.
Acting Superintendent Rhys Wildman said one man was arrested after trying to flee the police raid in his ute at a crackdown at Yatala on Saturday night, triggering the rest of the hoons to pack up and head north of the Gold Coast district.
“We’ve had the return of our highway patrol and rapid action patrol staff off the borders and other duties and they were in full swing on the weekend in a targeted operation,” Wildman said.
Bolstered by the injection of extra police back on the beat since the State opened up, the resurgence of Operation Tango Vinyl targeted the gathering of more than 70 vehicles at Yatala.
Police arrested four offenders on five charges and issued 21 infringement notices.
One ute driver was charged with wilfully creating noise and smoke.
A second was charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle and evading police after he tried to flee, only to crash his vehicle, jump out and run off.
“These drivers tend to be rather overconfident and, as he was trying to get away from police, he lost control on a roundabout,” Wildman said.
“He did take off into the bush but was spotted by PolAir 1.”
Wildman said the operation with the extra police numbers was the start of a new offensive against hoons.
“In recent weeks since Christmas we have started to see numbers swell again,” Wildman said.
“This is just the start for us. We’re already looking at a new series of strategies to disrupt and prevent these activities happening.”
Police last year launched a massive operation against hoons, including police stings, PolAir monitoring, filming illegal gatherings and trawling social media broadcasts of hoon events to follow up with arrests.
The State Government also introduced new anti-hoon powers in April that meant police could serve notices on the owner of a vehicle involved in hooning offences, rather than the driver at the time.
It meant if the owner of a vehicle claimed they weren’t driving at the time of the offence, the onus was on them to prove it and offenders could no longer avoid prosecution by simply masking their identities or denying they had been behind the wheel.
