Cody Langridge pleads guilty to car theft and failing to comply with reporting obligations

A petty crook and registered sex offender was nabbed driving a stolen car full of thousands of dollars of valuable clothing, a court has heard.

Cody Langridge: Picture: Facebook.

A petty crook and registered sex offender was nabbed driving a stolen car full of thousands of dollars of valuable clothing, a court has heard.

Cody Langridge, 25, appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court via videolink on Thursday and pleaded guilty to a string of charges including car theft, dishonestly receiving stolen goods, driving while disqualified, two counts of theft and five counts of failing to comply with reporting obligations.

Documents released by the court reveal that on Boxing Day last year, Langridge tried to conceal his identity as he filled up a stolen car with petrol at a service station on Shannon Ave.

The incident was captured on CCTV and Langridge drove off without paying.

The car contained $6500 worth of “valuable items” of clothing.

Langridge’s driver’s licence had been suspended days earlier.

In April 2023, police intercepted a car on Pakington St in which Langridge was in the back seat and in possession of a stolen projector, taken during a burglary two months earlier.

Langridge told police he had bought it from a friend of his girlfriend for $150.

The sex offender, who was placed on the register in 2018, also failed to comply with his reporting obligations numerous times. 

In December 2022 and February 2023 he failed to report new phone numbers.

He told his community corrections officer he was homeless in December 2022, but police only found out after they executed a warrant on his listed address on January 9, 2023.

In October 2023, he failed to report after being released following a stint in jail.

Langridge’s lawyer, Matilda Jones, told the court most of the matters were old, having occurred before he was sentenced over other offences last year.

The court heard Langridge showed “severe levels of psychological distress” as well as symptoms of ADHD and borderline personality disorder, and also suffered from PTSD.

Langridge was introduced to illicit substances before he was 10 years old, the court heard, starting with cannabis and progressing to ice and GHB.

He had a “troubled upbringing”, Ms Jones told the court, and didn’t finish high school, instead “running with the wrong crowd”.

Magistrate Peter Mellas warned Langridge if he kept failing to comply with his reporting obligations, he would end up with time in jail and sentences that “have no relationship to the actual offending”.

Mr Mellas told the court that putting Langridge on a community corrections order was almost setting him up to fail.

“It was always going to very difficult for you to pick up where you left off and come back,” he told Langridge.

He said Langridge seemed “to be living on the fringes” among other crooks and those “living on their wits”.

Langridge was sentenced to 28 days in prison and disqualified from driving for three months.

Langridge will return to court on September 23.

Originally published as Cody Langridge pleads guilty to car theft and failing to comply with reporting obligations