Michael Wells, of Tallygaroopna, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to theft of a vehicle.
The court heard the charge was put on the basis that he was a passenger in the stolen car and not that he had a part in the Yarrawonga home invasion at 12.45am on October 3 last year where the car was stolen.
Prosecutor Andrew Norris told the court the stolen Volkswagen sedan was spotted by police on the Katamatite-Shepparton Rd, near Katandra, that night at 1.20am.
The court was told police became involved in a pursuit with the car that saw speeds of up to 150km/h reached by the stolen car.
Stop sticks were deployed by police at Congupna and the Volkswagen continued into the Shepparton central business district on its rims, where it ran through red lights, ignored stop signs and was driven on the wrong side of the road at times, Mr Norris said.
The prosecutor told the court Wells was a passenger in the car when it finally stopped in Field St, Shepparton, and he was arrested at the scene.
Wells’ solicitor Emma King told the court her client had served 33 days in pre-sentence detention on this matter.
She said he had been serving a youth detention sentence on other matters that ended on June 10, but this matter had not been included in a consolidation of charges for those matters because it had been going to be heard in the county court and was only remitted to the magistrates’ court a week earlier.
She said this was a plea of guilty at the earliest stage in the magistrates’ court.
It is for this reason she asked for a fine only, recognising he spent 33 days in prison waiting for the matter to come to court.
Mr Norris said while the offending was “concerning and very dangerous”, getting into a stolen car was an example of “low-level” offending.
Magistrate Peter Mithen sentenced Wells to the 33 days’ prison and reckoned all of it as time already served.
However, he noted that it was at least the sixth time Wells had been charged with theft of a vehicle.
“You were in the car and you knew it was stolen,” Mr Mithen said.
“If you continue with this sort of offence it will lead to longer and longer jail sentences.
“If mates come around with cars you need to … tell them to go away. They are doing you no favours.”
