Jermaine Jordan Sarunic-Wilson excused of breached bond charge in Port Lincoln court
A young Port Lincoln man on supervised bail for stealing a car last year has been let off by a magistrate for breaching his bond.
Port Lincoln
Don't miss out on the headlines from Port Lincoln. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Port Lincoln teenager has walked from court without a conviction despite only completing half of his supervised bail period for stealing a car.
Sporting a black hoodie, Jermaine Jordan Sarunic-Wilson stood before the Port Lincoln Magistrates Court on an application for enforcement of breached bond after driving a motor vehicle without consent last year.
Police Prosecutor Erin Everett explained to Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos the 19-year-old was placed under a 12-month bond, in which six of those months were to be supervised back in September 2019.
The court heard Sarunic-Wilson failed to meet at least five supervised meetings.
“He has failed to comply with that by simply not attending and all efforts to chase him up were non-responsive,” she said.
“On a positive note he has not reoffended during that period at all.”
In April last year, Sarunic-Wilson along with another male went through several vehicles to see if they would open before driving off in a car and crashing it into a fence, causing damage.
The teenager’s lawyer, Vivian Kenney, explained to the court his client’s visits to the department stopped when his grandmother fell ill.
“At the early period of the bond, he attended five of his first appointments with the department,” Mr Kenney said.
“Following that, the primary reason behind his non attendance was that he had travelled to Ceduna to see his grandmother who was ill with cancer.
“He concedes that he did not reach out to the department.”
Mr Kenney asked Ms Kossiavelos seek to find proper grounds to excuse his clients failure and refrain from taking any further action towards him.
“This offending is now quite dated and he has completed the full bond of 12 months with no fresh offending,” Mr Kenney explained.
Ms Kossiavelos asked the prosecution how frequently Sarunic-Wilson had to attend his visits to which Ms Everett replied on a fortnightly basis.
“Yes he would have been about half way through his supervision period your honour,” Ms Everett said.
Before making her decision Ms Kossiavelos took the time to explain the severity of Sarunic-Wilson’s actions to him.
“The interfere with motor vehicle is a serious offence,” she said looking at the 19-year-old in the dock.
“If you commit again you could be looking at three month mandatory imprisonment so make sure you never get involved with the wrong group and start doing stupid things like that again.”
Ms Kossiavelos told the court that due to no reoffending, she will excuse the breach.
No conviction was recorded.