NOODLE SCRATCHER TIME. Carjacking isn’t actually a specified offence in the state of Victoria.
For real.
In fact, the current Crimes Act doesn’t have anything that even closely resembles the act of forcibly removing someone from their own vehicle in order to steal it whilst on the road.
Victoria Police, as a result, have been up against it when it comes to investigating a spate of incidents in well-to-do areas of Melbourne, which recently saw two carjacking incidents occur in similar circumstances within 24 hours.
Both incidents occurred in the Malvern area of the city, and involved high-end cars being bumped from behind. When the owners exited their respective vehicles to inspect the damage, they were assaulted and had their cars stolen.
The problem with tracking these occurrences is the aforementioned fact that there’s no specific law designed to deal with incidents like that in isolation. Instead, police have to cross reference any motor vehicle thefts that have also coincided with robberies.
What they found is certainly concerning: In the year from April 2015 to March 2016, 171 incidents that fit that description were reported. This is up from 95 in the 12 months before that.
The good news, however, is that legislation has been hastily introduced into state parliament to specifically outlaw carjacking and aggravated carjacking, with proposed maximum jail terms of 15 years and 25 years respectively included.
The State Government will debate the issues today, and will likely vote on the matter when Parliament returns from its winter break in August.
It’s a weird, weird world sometimes, dear friends.
Source: Herald Sun.
Photo: Nigel Killeen/Getty.
