Jail for serial car thief
A SERIAL car thief who helped steal two vehicles in the same night will serve time behind bars.
Kymberley Anne Curtis, 20, pleaded guilty from custody to two charges of unlawful use of a motor vehicle and one of obstructing a police officer.
It was the seventh time Curtis has been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle in the past 18 months, with the most recent charges committed just days before her parole was set to finish.
Police prosecutor Harriett Hearn said Curtis and other people had broken into a home at 3.30am on August 26, and stole phones, tools, bank card, watches and the car keys to a Holden Commodore. On that same night, Curtis was involved in stealing a Holden Colorado, and a handbag from a different property. Ms Hearn said CCTV footage from a Liberty service station showed Curtis moving between the two cars, before paying for fuel and leaving in one of the cars.
On August 31, when police arrested Curtis, she tried to walk away from officers before she was handcuffed.
She struggled against the arrest, and headbutted a wall, kicking tables and chairs and had to be carried by officers to the police vehicle.
Ms Hearn said Curtis showed a “consistent disregard” for court orders.
Defence lawyer Emily Olditch said her client was still a “young woman figuring out what to do with her life”.
Ms Olditch said Curtis had been “doing well” on parole until her father was diagnosed with cancer, and made the “terrible decision” to take ice and breach her parole, just a week before it was set to expire. “She wants to be close to her father; his diagnosis is a wake-up call for her,” Ms Olditch said.
Magistrate Viviana Keegan told Curtis to look at where she was, if she thought ice wouldn’t destroy her life. Taking into account delays of up to eight months for prisoners’ applications for parole, she sentenced Curtis to 12 months imprisonment, suspended after serving four months’ jail with an operational period of two years.
Twenty-two days of presentence custody was taken into account.
“It’s a double-edged sword, because if you get charged with further offending, you will end up serving longer in jail,” Ms Keegan said.