Chocolate bandit fined

Sweet tooth’s night in custody for $15 of candy

He just took the chocolates because he couldn’t afford to pay for them. SOLICITOR RYAN MCCULLOUGH

A 26-YEAR-OLD man spent almost 24 hours in custody of the Toowoomba watch house before being convicted and fined $150 for stealing just $15 worth of chocolates.

Sean Andrew Remeeus appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court via video link from the watch house on Thursday to plead guilty to two counts of stealing confectionary from Woolworths Grand Central.

Police prosecutor Tahlia Boettcher told the court Remeeus was known to Woolworths staff due to previous dealings with him and he was seen by staff to shoplift a $5 block of chocolate from the confectionary section of the store about 4pm on Tuesday.

Staff reported the theft to police.

Police were called again by Woolworths staff the next day when Remeeus was caught moving through the checkout section about 1.50pm without paying for five Mars bars valued at $2 each, Ms Boettcher said.

The sweet tooth offender was taken into custody and spent the night in the watch house before appearing in court on Thursday morning to own up to the confectionary theft.

Duty solicitor Ryan McCullough, of MacDonald Law, described the incidents as “silly offending”.

“He just took the chocolates because he couldn’t afford to pay for them,” he submitted.

Mr McCullough said it was conceded his client was subject to a suspended jail sentence imposed by the court for unrelated offending and asked that the operational period of that sentence be extended rather than any of the sentence be activated.

Magistrate Graham Lee noted Remeeus had “a terrible criminal history” which stretched to four and a half pages although these were his first offences of dishonesty.

Taking into account the 26year-old had spent almost 24 hours in custody, Mr Lee convicted and fined Remeeus $150 and extended the operational period of his suspended sentence by one month.