Burglar and car thief Bailey O’Brien, 20, jailed on theft, drug charges

He was caught with a car full of loot after getting mired, now the expectant dad has been told to ditch his deadbeat mates and clean up his act.

Bailey O'Brien. Picture: Facebook.

Burglaries had become “part and parcel” of life for an expectant Geelong dad who was caught after getting bogged during a failed raid, a court heard.

Bailey O’Brien, 20, fronted the Geelong Magistrates’ Court via prison link on Thursday and was jailed for six months by magistrate Franz Holzer after pleading guilty to 18 theft, dishonesty, weapon, driving and drug offences.

Court documents released to the Geelong Advertiser state that O’Brien stole a car on November 6 last year, after a man left his van’s engine running when he went inside an address in Grovedale at 4.30pm.

That evening, O’Brien was spotted by police driving on Vines Rd but he took off at 90km/h when they activated their lights and sirens.

He and the vehicle were later found, but O’Brien refused a breath test and interview.

Six days later, a man noticed his shed door was open and heard noises from the back of his property, court documents state.

When he went to investigate, the man found O’Brien and a co-accused had gotten a car, which had false plates, stuck in the dirt and resorted to ripping fence palings off neighbouring houses and jamming them under the rear wheels in an effort to free the vehicle.

Police arrived and arrested the pair, while a search of the car turned up two large hunting knives, 1-4 butanediol and ice, numerous power tools, a bag full of laptops, electronics and keys, as well as bolt cutters and a pry bar.

O’Brien’s lawyer, Jacob Mildren, told the court his client had a “difficult upbringing” and was struggling with homelessness and drug addiction at the time of the offending.

He said O’Brien needed support upon his release, had expressed willingness to do a community corrections order (CCO) and was “a bit worried about what things will look like” when he got out of prison.

O’Brien, whose partner is set to give birth next month, was introduced to drugs at a “very young age” and had been “hanging around with older people and jailbirds”, Mr Mildren told the court.

Due to the chaos in his life, O’Brien’s mental health was such that he was not able to take advantage of earlier opportunities at reform.

Chris Conway, for Corrections Victoria, noted that O’Brien “lasted a week” before breaching his previous CCO and said while O’Brien clearly needed assistance, placing him on another CCO was perhaps setting him up to fail.

Mr Holzer said the issue was in O’Brien’s continued association with “the same names that appear in this court on a routine basis”.

“(It’s) who you mix with, who you associate with, who you are influenced by,” Mr Holzer told O’Brien.

He noted while O’Brien may have expressed a willingness to reform, he was not convinced O’Brien had the capacity at this stage.

O’Brien was convicted and also fined $300. He had 63 days of his sentence reckoned as time served.

Originally published as Burglar and car thief Bailey O’Brien, 20, jailed on theft, drug charges