Tanks for nothing

Man guilty of pet shop theft

A NEWTOWN man stole two fish tanks with no fish in them and a bag of dog food from PETstock but has no memory of the incident, a court has heard.

Leonard Malady, 37, was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order yesterday after pleading guilty to theft at Geelong Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard Malady parked his car in the driveway of PETstock Geelong on June 15 at 2.20am and removed a back window to gain entry to the shop.

Once inside, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Geoff Lamb said Malady “took a large box containing a fish tank”, went back outside and left it next to his car.

He said the Newtown man then returned inside and took a “fish tank filtration system and three bags of dog food, and left them just outside the rear door”.

Sen-Constable Lamb told the court a silent alarm had gone off when Malady gained entry to the shop and police soon arrived.

He said Malady hid in the area and only came when police turned on his vehicle’s ignition to drive it to the station. The court heard Malady later returned to the store and “apologised to the owner, and said he was just doing it for his little brother, and that he would just get a slap on the wrist”.

Lawyer for Malady, Carmela Pezzimenti, said “the circumstances are somewhat odd”.

“He doesn’t own a dog or a fish and he doesn’t remember the night,” she said.

Magistrate Hugh Radford asked if the tank had any fish in it, to which the response was no. “I don’t want to hand him a slap on the wrist, that’s obviously what he’s expecting,” Mr Radford said.

He sentenced Malady to a 12-month community corrections order without conviction.