A fly-in, fly-out worker who took a front-end loader for a drunken joyride through a Western Australia mining town has been labelled an "idiot" by a magistrate.

Victorian man Mark Andrew Bagley, 40, was accused of stealing the loader from a nearby mine site and leading police on a slow pursuit, travelling about 30kph, through the northern Goldfields town of Leonora.

Bagley claimed during a trial in the Kalgoorlie Magistrate's Court he never heard sirens or saw police lights because of the noise of the machine.



Witnesses to the incident on March 25 last year said Bagley drove across both lanes of traffic with the machine's bucket scraping the ground, causing more than $30,000 of damage to the Goldfields Highway.



Police tasered Bagley multiple times and pepper-sprayed him to get him to comply with their instructions after he refused to turn off the engine.



Acquitted of stealing front-end loader



Bagley was today acquitted of stealing the machine by magistrate Sandra De Maio after successfully arguing he had permission from his supervisor to dig out a work vehicle that had become bogged in bushland.



But he was convicted of reckless driving, damaging property, and failing to stop when directed by a police officer.



He pleaded guilty to obstructing officers and drink driving, after recording a blood alcohol content of 0.076.



Magistrate De Maio fined Bagley $4,600, plus court costs of $98.50, and disqualified his driver's licence for the minimum six-month term.



She warned he could face civil proceedings from Main Roads WA if it sought damages to pay for repairs to the highway.

Witnesses say Mark Andrew Bagley drove erratically on both sides of the road. ( Supplied: WA Police )

Police pursued loader with sirens wailing



Magistrate De Maio said Bagley's driving had been "inherently dangerous to the public" and she found it hard to believe he did not see police.



The magistrate said if police had pursued a higher charge in relation to the pursuit, Bagley would have faced a mandatory six-month jail term if found guilty.



She said Bagley could count himself lucky because the damaging property charge carried a maximum fine of $24,000 or two years' imprisonment.



The maximum penalty for reckless driving was $6,000 or nine months in jail.



"You can't act like an idiot and expect there to be no serious consequences," she said.



"God help you if you had hurt someone. That's too high a price for the community to pay for your stupidity."



Police prosecutor Sergeant Phil Meatyard outside the Kalgoorlie Magistrate's Court. ( ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Jarrod Lucas )

Drunk loader driver lost his job



Police prosecutor Phil Meatyard said the incident had been serious because of the recklessness involved.



"It could have been catastrophic or deadly to anyone had it gone wrong," he said.



Bagley had worked 10 years for the same company and was second-in-charge at the mine site before losing his job over the incident.



Workmates followed the loader in a ute with ropes to extract the bogged four-wheel-drive.



Defence lawyer Carmel McKenzie said Bagley's work colleagues had played a role in the escapade.



"There was an element of bravado with these four men," she said.



Accused 'deeply regrets' actions



Ms McKenzie said the loss of his high-paying mining job had significantly impacted Bagley's finances.



He is now running a screening plant in Victoria, earning about $60,000 per annum.



Ms McKenzie said Bagley had had a good reputation until the incident and he deeply regretted his actions.



She said there had been "virtually no-one on the road" and Bagley was "not wilfully manoeuvring the loader in an improper fashion".

The front-end loader's bucket scraped the ground and caused more than $30,000 damage to the Goldfields Highway. ( Supplied: WA Police )

'God knows why you didn't stop': Magistrate



The court heard the loader was too big to be driven on public roads and had to be floated with an escort and proper permits to be taken off the mine site.



Magistrate De Maio said it "beggars belief" that someone who had reached a supervisory level would not be aware of the safety procedures for the offsite movement of the vehicle.



She described the drunken idea to dig out the vehicle with the loader as "madness".

"From an incredibly stupid idea, you've compounded it by gouging a big hole in the road and driving through Leonora," she said.



"God knows why you didn't stop when police asked you.



"It's not funny and not in the realm of stupid hijinks of young men. You're all mature men and you were in charge of machinery which could have caused untold damage."