Teen’s double day in court
Car scout gets extra jail
Judge Grant noted Foster had never met his father, left school in Year 7, and then spent a large part of his teenage years in youth detention.
A CAR spotter who scouted a vehicle for a steal-to-order burglary in Leopold last year will spend a longer stint in jail after appearing in both Geelong’s magistrates’ and county courts yesterday.
Shane Foster, 19, admitted selling information to wouldbe car thieves that led to a violent confrontation in a Leopold home on November 2, and also to spending up on a credit card found inside a different stolen vehicle.
Jailed for 14 months in January after pleading guilty to four burglaries/car thefts, trafficking MDMA, robbery and recklessly causing injury, Foster had a further five months added to his jail term yesterday. All of the crimes happened during a spate of offending by the teenager last year.
County Court judge Paul Grant said Foster was guilty of conspiring to steal because text messages showed he agreed to find a GTS Holden Commodore so that it could be stolen, and quickly provided co-offender Wol Wol with an address and photo of the home where he’d find such a vehicle.
Armed, Wol and two co-offenders then went to the home, but their efforts to steal the car were thwarted after a confrontation with its owner, Dale McDonald.
Judge Grant noted Foster had never met his father, left school in Year 7, and then spent a large part of his teen- age years in youth detention.
Wol, 19, last week pleaded guilty to his role in the attempted armed burglary, and was scheduled to return to the County Court on November 8.
While the judge said rehabilitation was usually the prime consideration when sentencing young offenders, he said Foster had squandered many opportunities in the past, and therefore community protection and deterrence had to be given greater consideration.
A short time later Foster was brought into the magistrates’ court to face 16 charges, including multiple counts of obtaining property by deception, and single charges of handling stolen goods, car theft and unlicensed driving.
The court heard a Jeep Cherokee was stolen from a home in Narre Warren on October 28 — the same day the man started conversing with Wol about stealing the Commodore.
In the following days, Foster used a credit card that was left in the Jeep to make purchases at McDonald’s restaurants and service stations, driving to those locations in a different car stolen from Lorne. FAMILIES will be able to enjoy their favourite flicks under the stars when a pop-up cinema launches at Bannockburn later this year.
The free family-friendly cinema will pop up at the Bannockburn Recreation Reserve for four days from November 29 to December 2.
The Golden Plains Youth Committee-run, council-backed