Crim’s cheeky phone theft
A CRIMINAL who denied stealing an expensive mobile phone was foiled when the application “find my iPhone” pointed to the device being stuck between the cheeks of the woman’s bottom.
Ravenswood woman Trisha Louise Wickham, 42, previously pleaded guilty to 21 offences, with Launceston Magistrate Simon Brown sentencing her on Tuesday.
Wickham committed three common assaults, on November 15, 19, and December 10 last year.
On the first occasion, an attendant at Harris Scarfe Launceston attempted to stop the woman leaving the store with a stolen air fryer and mattress protector.
After dropping the goods, Wickham punched the attendant in the arm and knocked her phone out of her hand, before punching the woman in the face despite the intervention of a customer.
She then sat in the Brisbane St Mall, where she resisted arrest because of her level of intoxication, and verbally abused police, the court heard.
Four days later, Wickham tore the shirt off her former partner of 16 years, to whom she has four children, while repeatedly punching him in the face, leaving him bloodied and bruised, near Launceston Civic Square.
On December 10, she punched her boyfriend of about three months repeatedly in the face in the back of a taxi outside City Mission on Frederick St over allegations he owed her $40 for alcohol.
Four days previously, Wickham attended Family Medical Centre at Kings Meadows in a distressed state, requesting Valium.
The GP told the woman she was not the right doctor for her and went to consult with her manager, returning to her room to find her iPhone 11 was missing.
Wickham was flagged down by police on Hobart Rd, where she denied knowledge of the phone, with police initially unable to locate the device.
But on the mobile application revealing the iPhone’s proximity, it was discovered between her buttocks.
Other offences of Wickham’s included stealing from BWS, on Wellington St, Factorie Launceston and Allgoods Launceston, and driving disqualified. Her offending was in breach of a three-month suspended sentence.
She has been remanded in pre-sentence custody since January 18, the court heard.
It was submitted on Wickham’s behalf that her offending was driven by her substance abuse issues.
She was sentenced to 38 weeks’ imprisonment, wholly suspended with time served upon her entering into a drug treatment order, fined $500 and disqualified from driving for six months.
Levies of $320 were also imposed.