‘Pink Panther’ exposed on CCTV

A YOUNG criminal was compared to the Pink Panther after being caught on CCTV “creeping around” a North Queensland school before breaking into a car to steal a handbag, a court has heard.

Townsville resident Leiren Justin Neville Murgha, 20, appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday after racking up several criminal charges around North Queensland between June and September.

Police prosecutor Tim Madsen said Murgha’s fingerprints were detected on the passenger side of a stolen vehicle dumped on a street in Vincent in late June.

On August 16, Murgha and a juvenile co-offender were captured by CCTV on the grounds of Ingham’s Gilroy Santa Maria College where he opened a car door and stole a handbag containing $5 and five cigarettes.

In the last week of September, Murgha entered an Ingham gymnasium where he stole a small sum of money and meat.

Murgha pleaded guilty to the unlawful entry of vehicle for committing indictable offence in company, trespass, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, enter premises and commit indictable offence by break, stealing, receiving tainted property, and breach of a bail condition.

While still “youthful”, Mr Madsen said Murgha “sits on the cusp” of imprisonment.

ATSILS defence lawyer Margaret Crowther said Murgha was raised by his grandmother, and wanted to “reset his goals” and “change his direction” by getting a job in the mines.

She said her client had been “walking through the school grounds”, to which Magistrate Ross Mack interjected, saying he’d seen the CCTV footage where Murgha was “creeping around”, looking like the “Pink Panther”.

Ms Crowther said the 35 days he had spent in pre-sentence custody, his first experience at the Townsville Correctional Centre, had been a “wake up call”.

He sentenced Murgha to a two-year period of probation with no conviction recorded.