Metal yard hit-and-run accused drove over worker after being told it was closed, court told

A man accused of mowing down an employee at a scrap metal yard in Adelaide’s inner-west has told a court he was being chased by a man with a machete at the time and was trying to drive away.

Shane Anthony Matherson has been charged with endangering life and failing to stop at the scene of an accident following the incident outside Denron Metals in Thebarton on March 6.

Police prosecutors told the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court Mr Matherson arrived at the scrap metal yard at closing time but was told by an employee that the business was closed.

The court heard the Blair Athol man then allegedly drove his van into an employee, knocking him to the ground before turning the vehicle around in a dead-end street and driving back over the man “at speed”.

“It appears he did not suffer any broken bones so he was very lucky in terms of his injuries,” the police prosecutor told the court.

Mr Matherson told the court he had phoned the business earlier in the day and was trying to drop off two fridges, a barbecue and some copper piping five minutes before the scrap metal yard was due to close.

“[An employee] walked up to the car and pointed at me and said, ‘F off, we are shut’ and I said … ‘I just want to drop it off that’s all, I don’t want the money’,” Mr Matherson said.

“Next minute they’re all saying get out of the effing car and there was six or eight men with tattoos on their arms, huge.

Police reject machete claim

Mr Matherson told the court he would contest the charges as he was acting in self-defence.

“Then this guy … six-foot-eight, as round as a barrel … he ran out of the scrap metal yard … and with his left hand smashed my windscreen and nearly put his hand through it,” Mr Matherson told the court.

“I took off on an angle, he hit the side of my car and fell onto the ute that was there.

“I did a quick U-turn because it was a dead-end street, there was no other way out.

“I drove by, the machete hit my windscreen and I drove away — it was as simple as that.”

He told the court police had found the machete and that his version of events would have been captured on CCTV — vision which, the court heard, had not yet been obtained by police.

But police prosecutors disputed the allegation.

Magistrate Jayanthi McGrath adjourned Mr Matherson’s application for bail to give police time to source and review CCTV of the alleged offence.

The matter will return to court next week.