Thief says he stole ute to escape gun-toting relative
A FORMER Norlane man stole a ute in St Leonards and drove it to Belmont to go on a spending spree with credit cards he found in the vehicle.
Brayden Craig’s offending in January was similar to a string of car thefts and deceptions he committed on the Surf Coast 10 months earlier, and, together, the crimes landed him a six-month jail term in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The court heard the 21year-old opened an unlocked car in the front yard of a St Leonards home between 1am and 5am on January 3, and found a set of keys in the glovebox.
The keys unlocked a nearby Mitsubishi Triton, so Craig stole it and drove to Kmart’s 24-hour store in Belmont.
Prosecutor Senior Constable David Vanderpol said the thief had two credit cards and $800 cash he found in the ute when he arrived at the store.
Using the credit cards, he made nine separate buys, spending more than $600 to buy two scooters, helmets, clothes, a computer hard drive, a speaker and a “ghetto blaster”.
Then he drove to the IGA supermarket in Grovedale and tried to buy $160 of cigarettes, only to find the card had maxed out.
The court was told Craig kept driving the Mitsubishi in the following weeks, even using it to attend one of his appointments with corrections officers before police caught up with him later in January.
On being interviewed, he told officers he had gone to St Leonards with his cousin, but changed his plan en route staff in the laboratory at the time who were wearing appropriate personal protection equipment,” the spokesman said.
“Under appropriate procedures and protocols, the laboratory was closed and evacuated while the spill was cleaned up.
“There were no injuries to staff when the relative produced a firearm.
Sen-Constable Vanderpol said the defendant claimed he stole the car to “get away from my cousin and (because) I felt threatened”.
Craig’s lawyer Stephanie Mawby said the man had made good progress on his corrections order and his obligation to do unpaid community work while living in the Melbourne suburb of Hastings.
But the man had yet to start any offender behaviour programs.
“His problem is the offending,” Ms Mawby said. or others and it is expected to have the laboratory and building it is in reopened tomorrow.”
A Deakin University spokesman said traffic diversions would be in place around the affected building until the cleanup was complete.
Those issues escalated on June 24, when his mother and stepfather, who he was living with, accused him of stealing from them by using his mum’s bank card.
This led to a confrontation, during which Craig sent his mother a text message that said, “I hope you die, you mutt”, and was later locked up by police.
Ms Mawby said the man had been in jail for 17 days since that arrest.
She asked Magistrate Peter Mellas to give her client another chance at a community corrections order after he pleaded guilty to car theft, theft, deception, threat and bail offences yesterday.
But Mr Mellas noted the charges from the St Leonards offences were adjourned by the court in April so the man could prove his commitment to the CCO he was on for last year’s offending.
“The only alternative today is jail,” Mr Mellas said.
He cancelled the corrections order, jailing Craig for this year’s offending and resentencing him on last year’s crimes, resulting in a total jail term of six months, and a driving ban of the same length.