Hoon terrorised wrong car

A serial hoon who rammed a car and tormented its driver for a joke, believing it was a mate, says he is now a "changed man". Nine-times disqualified driver Glen James King thought it would be a lark to give his mate a "touch up" when he spotted a Kia Rio outside the Nerang Council Chambers in October last year.

Confident the Kia belonged to a well-known hooning mate, King began tailgating and nudging the car with his own Skyline. Unknown to him, the driver was a stranger who had already had his car egged early in the day and phoned police fearing he was being targeted in a vicious road rage attack.

The driver became even more terrified as King followed him into Nerang, playing cat and mouse and rear-ending him multiple times. The Kia driver swerved into the Nerang Skate Park car park but King blocked him in, causing the Kia driver to drive illegally over the footpath to escape.

King continued to chase the Kia for 30 minutes from Nerang to Surfers Paradise through red lights,car parks and main roads. In desperation, the driver of the Kia drove the wrong way down Ferny Ave in a bid to seek police protection but ended up crashing outside the Surfers Paradise Police Station.

Solicitor Michael McMillan said King, a mechanic, parked and ran back to check on the driver and it was only then he realised he had been chasing a terrified stranger. King confessed to police and was yesterday sentenced to 150 hours of community service and banned from getting behind the wheel until 2015.

Mr McMillan said his client was horrified by the incident and claimed to be a changed man after the birth of his daughter this year. "I'm sure he realises now what a terrifying ordeal it was for the other people in the car," he said. Magistrate Kerry Magee blasted the serial driving pest.

"I have trouble understanding the mentality of someone who thinks endangering others' lives is amusing," she said. "Community service will make you put something back into the community whose safety you compromised."