CARAVAN thief Geoffrey Smith who topped 150kph as the stolen rig was chased by police is now behind bars.

Smith, 34, was drunk behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle towing the caravan, which he stole from a Black Saturday bushfire survivor, when police arrested him at a Victorian service station.

Bendigo magistrates were told police had earlier called off the high-speed chase after the rig nearly hit a police vehicle and forced other motorists to take evasive action on the Calder Freeway.

Officers eventually nabbed Smith, of no fixed address, as he refuelled at the Caltex service station in Castlemaine. The offender was found to be more than five times over the legal alcohol limit.

Smith admitted 22 charges, including drug use and possession, theft and burglary, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, failing to stop and drink-driving.

The court heard that during a three-week crime spree, Smith stole the $60,000 caravan, a trail bike, plasma TV and other property from a 63-year-old grandfather who lost everything in the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

He had since expressed remorse for the pain he had caused and was thankful no one was injured or killed during the chase which happened when he was homeless and on a suicide mission to drink himself to death.

Sentencing him to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months, magistrate Bruce Cottrill told him: "You would have had little control of that vehicle. It's simply a miracle innocent people in the community were not injured or killed as a result of your activities."

He will be eligible for release in early October.