Man’s ice addiction spirals out of control
CONVICTED Geelong crook Daniel Vautier should no longer use the collapse of his excavating business as an excuse for his criminal activities, police say.
Vautier, 32 — also known as Voutier — appeared in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday facing charges including drugs, driving and theft matters.
His lawyer, Vincent Peters, said the defendant started offending in about 2013 after he declared himself bankrupt following the collapse of the family business he had taken over from his father, Lawrie Voutier.
“He found some solace in ice,” Mr Peters said, adding his client “desperately wants to break the habit and get into rehab”.
But prosecutor Senior Constable Scott Bell said the man was jailed in 2013 for similar offences.
“The failure of the business excuse was rolled out on that occasion,” Sen-Constable Bell said.
“It was previously the father’s business. The young fella has taken it over and destroyed it.”
Lawrie Voutier spoke about his son’s descent into drug addiction — and its affect on their family business — in court in 2013 when the defendant was given a 27-month jail sentence.
Sen-Constable Bell also highlighted the man’s repeated reoffending to cast doubt on claims he was keen to rehabilitate.
“Any submission by Mr Vautier of trying to break the habit is laughable,” the prosecutor said.
“I don’t know what else Mr Vautier needs to do in relation to getting a significant term of imprisonment.”
Magistrate John Lesser is considering what sort of prison term to offer Vautier after he was deemed unsuitable for a corrections order.
He was asked to provide a sentence indication to the man yesterday after hearing about a litany of crimes he is alleged to have committed earlier this year.
Vautier has not yet been found guilty of those crimes, but will decide his plea after Mr Lesser delivers the indication next week.
The court heard Vautier was on bail, on a curfew and disqualified from driving when police caught him driving in separate occasions in January, February, twice in April and in June.
On one occasion he was in a stolen car, that had a balaclava and “pinch bar” in it.
Then on July 16, he was caught allegedly trying to steal building products from a construction site in Garden St, Geelong, before being arrested by police.
Sen-Constable Bell said the man almost 25g of the drug ice in his underwear, and $500 cash and the keys to a stolen car in his pockets at the time.
Vautier will return to court on August 17.