Probation for ‘borrower’

Not returning ‘borrowed’ vehicles ends in court

A 49-YEAR-OLD man with a habit of keeping his employer’s vehicles has fronted court.

Jason Michael Burgess had been employed as a roofer in April when he had asked his boss for a loan of his ute on April 27, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Told to make sure the ute was returned within three hours, Burgess drove off from the Scarborough address but didn’t return, police prosecutor Chris Willson told the court.

About midnight the next day, the ute’s owner phoned Burgess who said he’d parked the vehicle to have a sleep and assured him he’d have the ute back in about five hours.

However, again he didn’t return the ute which was eventually found parked on a Goondiwindi street on April 30 with Burgess asleep in the driver’s seat, Senior Constable Willson said.

The court heard Burgess had driven off in another boss’s vehicle after a disagreement over wages on February 22.

When he didn’t show up at work, his employer texted him only for Burgess to say he wasn’t returning the vehicle as he was owed wages, Snr Const. Willson said.

The boss and another worker tracked the vehicle’s GPS to Murrarie where they found Burgess who tried to drive away but was stopped, he said.

Burgess pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully using motor vehicles which breached two probation orders to which he was subject at the time.

His solicitor Jag MacDonald, of MacDonald Law, told the court his client “accepted his shortcomings” and that he was wrong.

His client was working and in stable accommodation and a further term of probation could help keep him on track, Mr MacDonald submitted.

Magistrate Louise Shephard placed Burgess on 18 months probation and fined him $600 for breaching the probation orders.