Kurt Meagher pleads guilty to police pursuits, carjackings after wild crime spree

Meagher, 21, appeared in Newcastle Local Court last week and pleaded guilty to a laundry list of offences, including two counts of police pursuit, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to take and drive a motor vehicle, aggravated break and enter and a number of other property and driving offences.

He will be sentenced in Newcastle Local Court on December 5.

Police were looking for Meagher after a break-in and police pursuit at Port Macquarie in the early hours of April 9 this year.

About 3.15pm that day an off-duty police officer spotted a silver BMW convertible with stolen number plates on Cabbage Tree Road, Williamtown.

At 4.10pm, police spotted the car again heading towards them on Nelson Bay Road and activated their lights and sirens, triggering a pursuit that reached 160km/h.

Motorists heading towards Williamtown were forced to spear off the road as Meagher drove the BMW at more than 100km/h on the wrong side of Nelson Bay Road.

A short time later, while trying to negotiate a bend at about 100km/h, Meagher lost control and went within a metre of having a head-on collision with a police car.

The potential danger to the public was so extreme that police repeatedly terminated the pursuits, at one point blocked the road so no other cars could follow the BMW, called in Polair and ultimately used an unmarked police vehicle to follow the car as it sped over the Stockton bridge.

Meagher made it into Tighes Hill but was blocked by heavy traffic on Industrial Drive and while trying to do a u-turn over a median strip, got the BMW stuck.

He then jumped out of the car and tried to carjack two motorists before he was arrested by police.