Addict and a thief
Ice user leaves trail of devastation
AN ice addict who turned a Gold Coast family’s life upside down when he crashed headfirst into their car had also stolen more than $74,000 worth of jewellery from his grandmother.
Kurtis Barry Bates-Ratcliffe, 24, was using about 10g, or $900 worth, of the drug ice every day when he stole the jewels and crashed into the family.
The same amount of ice would take a recreational methamphetamine user about 11 weeks to use.
Bates-Ratcliffe, a labourer, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court to seven charges including stealing, fraud and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
Magistrate Pam Dowse described his offending as “absolutely despicable”.
“I don’t send many people to jail but this is the classic case where people should be put away for the sake of everyone else in the community,” she said.
Magistrate Dowse sentenced him to 12 months prison which was suspended for a three-year period.
She also ordered he pay the Gold Coast family $16,400 for writing off their car.
Ms Dowse said she suspended the sentenced so Bates-Ratcliffe could pay the family as soon as possible.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Reece Foort told the court Bates-Ratcliffe was living with his grandmother in Eagleby in May last year when he stole more than $74,000 worth of jewellery she kept in storage bins.
He sold the jewels to a second-hand shop for $5000 to feed his out-of-control ice habit.
Police were able to recover about $25,000 of the jewellery.
Sgt Foort said Bates-Ratcliffe was driving the wrong way down the Old Pacific Highway in Coomera and was high on ice when he crashed into another car about 3.20pm on June 6 last year.
The driver of the other car had three children in the back which were all left in shock and with whiplash.
Sgt Foort said the crash wrote off the family’s car which was worth about $16,400.
“The victim had her life turned upside down by the action of (Bates-Ratcliffe),” he said.
“She continues to pay off a vehicle she can’t drive and has had to pay for a new vehicle.”
Bates-Ratcliffe’s lawyer Danielle Heable, of Dib & Associates, said her client was in the grips of an ice addiction and was using about 10g a day.
“He did not realise it had snowballed at such a rapid rate,” she said.
“He would work during the day to earn money just to obtain drugs.”
Ms Heable said he had moved to Queensland from Western Australia to try and separate himself from drugs.
She said he had since returned to undergo a residential rehabilitation program for the past eight months.
The program is expected to take another eight months.