Thirty-two year-old man likely to get jail top-up after guilty pleas
Court hears how a 32-year-old fraudster invented a string of family tragedies to dupe farmers into paying thousands for hay that never arrived.
A 32-year-old man who scammed farmers through hoax hay sales had committed ‘brazen, high level dishonesty over a substantial period which was perpetrated by lies’, the Launceston Magistrates Court heard.
Among the lies told by Robert Donald Blackberry to avoid delivering hay to customers was that his father had died and that his wife had been rushed to Hobart for the delivery of twins.
Blackberry’s father Lloyd was in court for his son’s guilty plea to a raft of charges.
Deputy chief magistrate Ken Stanton clarified at the end of the plea hearing that Blackberry did not have twins.
“I will assume that everything he told people was a lie,” Mr Stanton said.
Police prosecutor Campbell Mackenzie said that in March 2023 Blackberry made contact via Facebook with a diary farmer who was wanting to buy 60 bales of hay.
She paid him a $375 deposit but she was then contacted by Blackberry about providing 65 more bales for which a $3000 deposit was paid.
“On March 11 the defendant failed to attend the property, deliver hay or refund the amounts.” Mr Mackenzie said.
In May 2024 Blackberry contacted a farmer and asked if he wanted to buy hay.
An amount of $2000 was paid to Blackberry’s NAB bank account before the complainant became suspicious and asked for identification.
“The defendant contacted the complainant and told him he was having truck problems – the hay was never delivered,” Mr Mackenzie said.
A week later he contacted another farmer by text message and $2000 was transferred to Blackberry’s account.
“On May 22, the defendant contacted the complainant saying his truck had broken down and that he required a further $2600 to cover repairs,” he said.
The hay was never delivered.
On August 22, 2024 Blackberry and a 15-year-old youth committed a series of burglaries and thefts from the Great Lake Hotel, a Deloraine supermarket, a Deloraine tobacconist and the Westbury Hotel in northern Tasmania.
The next day Blackberry and the youth were arrested at his Long Plains Rd property after CCTV from several promises identified Blackberry’s father’s Toyota LandCruiser.
Blackberry’s father is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Blackberry pleaded guilty to 15 counts of dishonestly acquiring a financial advantage stretching back to 2021.
In one case he used a fuel card from an employer to buy $605 worth of diesel for a truck.
In September 2023 he was detected with a blood-alcohol content of 0.072 at a time his licence was suspended.
He pleaded guilty to counts of failing to appear and breach of bail.
The court heard that the total of amounts involved in the complaints was $46,100 including damage to premises.
Defence lawyer Fran McCracken told the court Blackberry had been sentenced in June, 2025 to a significant period of incarceration [two years for an indecent assault and a common assault in 2021].
Ms McCracken said it was an aggravating factor that the dishonesty offences had been committed while he was on bail.
She said he was 32-years-old and was married with children.
“Does he have twins?,” Mr Stanton asked.
Ms McCracken took instruction in the court and answered ‘no’.
She said the delay in the hearing of the matters was delayed by the indecent assault matter and also by his failures to appear in court.
She said that while there was some level of sophistication Blackberry had used his own phone number and own bank accounts in the offending.
Ms McCracken urged Mr Stanton to make some of the sentence concurrent with his existing sentence.
Mr Stanton said that while the 15-year-old and Blackberry tried to palm off responsibility to the other he would treat the burglary and stealings as involving a common purpose.
“I will need to think carefully about sentence but there will be no prejudice to Mr Blackberry,” he said.
He set down sentencing for December 23 at 2.15pm.
Originally published as Thirty-two year-old man likely to get jail top-up after guilty pleas
