Car and bikes a poor bargain
A PETROL head and bargain hunter from Corio landed a six-month jail term yesterday after pleading guilty to driving and theft-related offences.
Cars and motorbikes were the “common thread” to the eight crimes Corey O’Toole admitted in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday, his lawyer, Adrian Paull, said.
Mr Paull said the 30-yearold’s pursuit of a bargain, his impulsive and reckless nature and limited intelligence also contributed to the offences.
The court heard O’Toole bought a Mercedes-Benz, valued at $60,000, earlier this year off a man for $13,000.
He posted numerous pictures of the car on Facebook in March, only to later learn it had been stolen from a home in Highton.
“It was a deal that was too good to be true. Mr O’Toole should’ve recognised that,” Mr Paull said. “His eyes lit up and he took it.”
Two months later O’Toole contacted a man who was trying to sell a motorcycle online.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Scott Bell said a middleman became involved in the sale, offering the vendor a trade for a quarter of a point of the drug ice, or a sale at $1000.
But the owner knocked back those offers, saying his best price was $3000.
The motorcycle was taken for a test ride, but not returned to the owner and ended up in O’Toole’s possession.
Sen-Constable Bell also outlined a number of driving offences by the defendant this year, most committed while his licence was suspended and in unregistered vehicles that did not have numberplates, or had fake or stolen substitutes.
On January 20, police clocked him at 128km/h on the Hume Freeway and watched him accelerate to 165km/h with two passengers in his car before he agreed to pull over.
Ten days later he was intercepted driving on Hendy St, Corio, and found to have methylamphetamine in his system.
His vehicle was impounded for a month.
Mr Paull said O’Toole had spent 138 days in custody, and urged Magistrate Peter Mellas to put the man straight on to a community corrections order.
But Mr Mellas said he needed to spend more time in jail before being released.
He jailed O’Toole for six months, ordering he serve a year-long CCO after his release, with drug, mental health and offender behaviour programs.
The man was also disqualified from getting a driver’s licence for a year.