British tourist Graham Stephen Belcher, 52 will be asked to enter pleas on multiple charges involving a fatal crash with two motorcycles on 2 September 2019 when he appears in court on 19 February 2020.
Tweed Heads Local Court today set the date for charge certification and again denied bail to Belcher who was arrested at Brisbane International Airport at 2am the next morning as he was about to board a flight to Hong Kong.
NSW Police allege the unlicensed driver was in a rental car that did not give way to two motorcycles at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Tweed Valley Way in Tumbulgum near Tweed Heads, about 3.20pm on 2 September.
Scott Rose, 39, died at the scene and his riding partner, Barry Nolan, was taken to Tweed Heads Hospital with minor injuries. He later released from hospital.
Belcher failed to stop and his Hyundai rental car was later found abandoned at Terranora.
Multiple pleas
He was extradited to NSW on an outstanding warrant and was also charged with:
- dangerous driving occasioning death – drive manner dangerous;
- fail to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death;
- negligent driving (occasioning death);
- cause bodily harm by misconduct in charge of motor vehicle;
- drive while licence cancelled;
- not give way to vehicle (give way sign/line); and
- driver fails/refuses to disclose his identity.
He will enter pleas on all these charges when he next appears in Tweed Heads local Court in February.
Bail has again been refused and he remains in custody.
Fundraiser
A fundraiser page was started to raise money for Scott’s family.
You can support the fundraiser by clicking here. So far, more than $17,000 of a $10,000 goal has been raised.
The fundraiser page was started by brother-in-law, Codie Holliday, to raise money to support Scott’s wife Tenniel and his children Lacey, 9, and Nash, 6.
“As the sole income provider for his family, Scott’s tragic death is impacting his family in so many awful ways, including financially,” Codie says on the fundraiser page.
Scott was a maintenance technician at Movie World and Sea World.
Codie says Scott “loved riding bikes, fixing them, his kids both have bikes and I’m fairly sure the garage has a number of ongoing bike ‘projects’ always”.
Red light hit-run
In another hit-run case today, Blacktown Local Court listed Daniel Marjoribanks for mention in Parramatta Local Court on 29 January 2020.
Police will allege Marjoribanks was the driver of a Nissan ute that ran a red light and hit a motorcyclist on Windsor Road, Rouse Hill, on12 September 2019.
He was charged with:
- Dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm;
- Negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm;
- Fail to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing grievous bodily harm;
- Fail to stop and assist after impact cause injury;
- Drive when visiting privileges withdrawn – first offence; and
- Not give particulars to injured person.
Conditional bail was continued.
Source: MotorbikeWriter.com