An award-winning chef was imprisoned for a terrifying cross-border car chase that ended in cops being tied up in the dust – only to have the arresting officer offer him a nice gesture.
- Award-winning chef Paul Smith is imprisoned for a police chase
- He leads the police in a multi-state chase with a stolen car in July 2022
An award-winning chef is jailed for leading police in a brutal multi-state chase in a stolen car.
Paul Smith, a one-time decorated chef for global hotel giant AccorHotels in Melbourne, has been sentenced to a year and nine months in prison over a terrifying car chase that stretched from Victoria to South Australia.
Smith stole the car on July 5, 2022 in Mildura, northwest Victoria.
A short time later, the police launched a manhunt that started a terrifying chain of events.
The chase crossed the border into Morphett Vale, in south Adelaide, before continuing through the Adelaide Hills where police set up tire spikes to try to slow the car down at Longwood.
Undeterred, Smith continued until he rammed a police car in the Adelaide Hills suburb of Bridgewater.
He was eventually cornered, stopped and pulled from the stolen car on the South Eastern Highway in South Australia – more than 300km from where the chase began.
In a strange but nice twist of events, one of the arresting officers helped Smith smoke a cigarette after he was handcuffed and sat on the side of the road.
Former chef Paul Smith (second from right) was jailed for leading police in a brutal multi-state chase in a stolen car.
Smith has won awards as Chef at Accor’s Pullman Hotel Pullman in the Park in Melbourne’s CBD (Central Business District).
He was awarded Victoria’s Accor Employee of the Year 2015, with the company describing him as “extremely persistent”.
In sentencing Smith on Wednesday, Judge Marie-Louise Hribal called his driving “extremely dangerous” and “exposed members of the public and police to a risk of serious injury and death.”
“You didn’t give them much thought…you deliberately drove your car into the side of a speeding police car and forcibly pushed the car out of the way,” Chief Justice Hribel said.
The court heard that Smith had a long criminal history and suffered from addictions to both methamphetamine and cannabis.
Smith was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of 14 months
Victoria Police are looking for Smith to have outstanding arrest warrants and he will be handed over to Victoria at the end of his prison term.
Smith (photo) was sentenced to a year in prison and nine months behind bars with a non-parole period of 14 months and will be extradited to Victoria due to outstanding warrants at the end of his prison term.