Raft of charges lands man 12 months’ jail
A Shepparton man charged with a string of thefts and with burning a stolen car at Bunbartha has been jailed for a year.
Tyson Ralph, 35, pleaded guilty at Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to a range of charges, including 11 counts of theft, 13 counts of obtaining property by deception, arson, trespass, theft of a motor vehicle and four counts of committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Gary Steel told the court Ralph and a co-accused — his former partner — went on a spending spree with a credit card stolen from a man’s Porsche in Carnegie on December 31, 2020.
Ralph is also said to have stolen a Louis Moinet watch valued at $20,000, although the value of the watch was disputed in court.
The court heard the duo then attended Cheltenham’s Southland shopping centre and purchased a gold and diamond ring valued at $1289 with the stolen credit card and a $170 pair of Nike runners. They then used a different stolen card for more than $500 worth of purchases on January 2.
Another incident, which occurred last year on October 29, saw Ralph and the co-accused steal a Mazda from a Wunghnu address and attend a property in Nathalia a day later, where Ralph stole $20 in coins and a $50 handbag from a vehicle.
They then drove the stolen car to Woodland Lane at Bunbartha, where a witness observed the pair. The car was then set on fire, with CFA units attending to control the blaze.
Other matters, the court heard, included Ralph, with the same co-accused, stealing two vacuum pumps and a set of hole saws from a vehicle in Seymour on January 4, while he also took a large selection of power tools from a vehicle in Kilmore on January 14 including a circular saw, a pipe cutter and a blower.
Leading Sen Constable Steel said Ralph and the coaccused also attended a Point Cook property on January 12 and stole an iPhone and a handbag containing a number of cards.
The court heard Ralph used the card at a petrol station and a supermarket to buy various items.
Defence counsel Ricardo Balancy submitted much of the offending was of a low objective seriousness, although Magistrate Peter Mithen disagreed and said “we’re talking some serious offences here”.
“To say it’s lower-end is, in my view, not correct,” Mr Mithen said.
Mr Balancy said Ralph was homeless and sleeping in cars throughout the offending and was “doing whatever he could” to feed a methamphetamine addiction.
He added his learning had been impacted by dyslexia before he was expelled from school and began using drugs.
Responding to an assertion Ralph was “shocked and remorseful” when confronted with his offending, Leading Sen Constable Steel pointed to his 30 pages of prior convictions, adding “he wasn’t shocked at all or remorseful”.
“The danger of me speaking for an hour reading these summaries is you lose sight of the victims in these matters,” he said.
Mr Mithen sentenced Ralph to one year in prison.
That sentence will be served cumulatively with a three-year prison sentence Ralph recently received in the County Court, which has an 18-month non-parole period.