Victoria Police target four-wheel-drives over Easter long weekend

A number of four-wheel-drives have been defected as part of a long weekend blitz by Victoria Police.

Off-road motorbike units from State Highway Patrol intercepted vehicles in the Mt Buller area over Easter, conducting roadworthy checks as part of ‘Operation Compass’.

Six vehicles from one convoy were issued defect notices near Razorback Hut Track, including a LandCruiser 79 Series owned and modified by fabricator Lachy Poole, who has nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram and 222,000 followers on TikTok.

Poole took to social media to express his disappointment, saying the police had “[picked] on a bunch of blokes just trying to enjoy a long weekend in a place their cars are built to drive”.

According to Poole, one officer had deemed the suspension on his LandCruiser as being “too crazy”, allegedly receiving a defect notice despite holding engineering certificates for the modifications.

A Nissan Patrol was also defected in nearby Mansfield, with the vehicle’s five-inch lift kit being “one of the highest lifts seen by the experienced members of the Solo Unit.”

Victoria Police say Operation Compass is “a major campaign focussing on keeping our community safe on the roads during the Easter long weekend.”

With the state-wide operation aiming to “reduce road trauma, including the number of lives lost and injuries on our roads”.

The first phase of Operation Compass will end at midnight tonight (Monday April 18), while the second phase will run over the Anzac Day long weekend from the early hours of Friday April 22 to midnight Monday April 25, 2022.