Fuelled by hatred and obsessed with conflict, man smashed into police car

By Anna Falkenmire

December 7 2024 - 5:30am

A MAN obsessed with war and conflict was “fuelled by his hatred of police” when he wreaked traffic chaos in an hour-long fit of rage before driving his car directly towards the public foyer of a Hunter police station.

Andrew Phan Berlot, 21, claimed to have a passion to be arrested and sent to jail so he could learn tricks from other inmates when he handed himself into Raymond Terrace police on October 31.

The Kurri Kurri man had just smashed his Toyota Camry sedan into a marked police Volkswagen on William Street after making a last-second deviation from his trajectory towards the station doors.

“I drove into the side of it,” Berlot told officers just before 9am that morning, according to a set of agreed facts.

“I did it on purpose … I hate youse.”

He said he was going to drive into the police station but inexplicably changed his mind.

During a recorded interview afterwards, police described Berlot as displaying “an obsession with war and conflict”.

The 21-year-old tried to join the Australian army before 2021 and then travelled to France between 2021 and 2022 to join the French Foreign Legion.

He was reported to have fought with that service for three months before returning to Australia.

Last year, he travelled to the Middle East with the intention of joining the Russian military conflict but returned to Australia after failing to proceed through certain border crossings.

He bought a one-way ticket to France in early 2024 but was unsuccessful in joining the French Foreign Legion again, so he returned home three months later.

By October 31, 2024, Berlot was working as an apprentice bricklayer in Port Stephens, when a heated verbal argument broke out with his employer about the police.

Facts tendered to the court claim Berlot hopped in his car in “a fit of rage” and fled the site “at high speed”.

Traffic was heavy on Nelson Bay Road at Fern Bay when Berlot was captured on dashcam driving in the breakdown lane and on the wrong side of the road, hitting speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour in a 70 zone.

The police case was that Berlot “maintained his rage for over an hour as he drove through multiple suburbs and forced vehicles off the road” after the blue at work.

“Without provocation the accused then directed his rage directly toward police,” the facts said.

At 8.45am, “fuelled by his hatred of police”, CCTV captured Berlot driving on the wrong side of the road directly towards the public foyer of the Raymond Terrace Police Station on William Street.

“The [offender] maintained a direct trajectory toward the front glass doors of the police station before making a last-second deviation to collide with a marked police vehicle,” the facts said.

The police Volkswagen Passat suffered considerable damage and was rendered unservicable. Police discovered Berlot had earlier used a claw hammer to smash his own windscreen.

Berlot was arrested at about 8.50am after he entered the station and told police what had happened.

Berlot was sentenced in Raymond Terrace Local Court this week to 22 months behind bars, with 15 months non-parole, and was disqualified from driving for two years.

He had pleaded guilty to two counts of driving recklessly or furiously in a speed or manner that was dangerous, and one count of destroying or damaging property.