11 of South Australia’s dumbest crimes that went before the courts in 2025
Dobbed in by an ex? Check. Faked being a nurse? Yep. Hanging off rooftops and trains? They did it. These are SA’s dumbest crimes of 2025.
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Having coffee with a man being robbed at knifepoint, spending stolen NDIS funds on BDSM equipment, hanging off city rooftops, biting a stranger while drunk and owning a how-to guide for drug dealing - South Australians did some dumb things that put them in court this year.
Here are some of SA’s stupidest crimes for 2025 so far – and check out the list for 2024 here.
Nathan Walter Braddock
He blamed his dead friend for the meth in his home – despite being caught red-handed flushing it down the toilet.
Neither a judge nor a jury believed Nathan Walter Braddock’s lie he was simply turning a “blind eye” to his friend’s dealings.
STAR Group officers attended the 42-year-old’s Mount Gambier home in October 2021, where Braddock immediately tried to hide his drugs – which he’d denied was even his.
About 22g of meth was recovered from the toilet, and a hole dug in the garage held a box containing 25 suboxone strips and $12,655 cash.
The meth was valued up to $17,000 and the Suboxone up to $10,000.
Braddock was found guilty by a jury of two counts of drug trafficking after a trial
The court heard Braddock now accepted the jury’s verdict, explaining he foolishly decided to “roll the dice” because he and his partner had a son last year.
Auxiliary Judge Gordon Barrett sentenced him to four years and nine months’ jail, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.
The sentence was backdated to October 28.
Benjamin Paul Sheppard
Wielding a knife and threatening an old man for his retirement savings is a terrifying act – but then sitting down to a cup of coffee with your victim is a bold choice.
Benjamin Paul Sheppard, 40, learned a western suburbs man over the age of 60 had recently withdrawn more than $85,000 from his retirement savings to help his son.
Sheppard confronted the victim in his driveway with a knife, demanding $22,500 cash and forced his way into the man’s home.
But Sheppard “calmed” visibly after being brought $15,000 in cash and accepted an offered cup of coffee – which he drank with his victim.
After another person came home, Sheppard described himself as a “friend” and left, taking only $5000 with him
The theft left the victim with long-term health issues and no longer felt safe.
Shepherd was found guilty of one count of aggravated robbery and aggravated serious criminal trespass by a jury on June 20, 2024.
Judge Michael Durrant sentenced Shepherd to six years’ jail for his offending, with a three-year, seven-month and six-day non-parole period.
Todd Balfour
A former international jockey from a well-known SA equestrian family bit a total stranger on the arm while drunk in a bar – with no rhyme or reason – leaving a young woman visibly bruised and distraught.
Todd Balfour, son of former jockey and horse trainer David Balfour, had been drinking with friends on New Year’s Day in Glenelg when he struck up a conversation with a young woman.
“Then, out of the blue, he leans over and bites her … he can’t explain it … it was not out of malice, it was not to proposition her,” lawyer Andrew Ey said.
“He just can’t explain what went through his mind in that moment.”
His victim said “this assault is not something a human being does”.
“I’m worried if this man is in the community, if he can do it again … I’ve become a scared, quiet and not happy person,” she said.
“I cannot comprehend how or why a person can’t just control their actions … he bit me and just walked away, feeling like anyone could do it.
Balfour pleaded guilty to one count of assault.
Magistrate Patrick Hill commended Balfour on his “extreme” remorse and “genuine” contrition, and for having committed to rehabilitation and giving up alcohol.
He said “acts of unprovoked and drunken violence” could not be tolerated, recorded a conviction, imposed a 12-month, $500 good behaviour bond, and ordered Balfour pay an $800 fine.
Nathaniel Grahame Dunk
A “sub dealer” in a drug enterprise unravelled after a police raid turned up 3.4g of methamphetamine and a document entitled “how to be a drug dealer”.
Nathaniel Grahame Dunk, 38, was addicted to meth before he became a player in a southern suburbs drug ring undone by detectives from Operation Stability.
Dunk’s phone was analysed and showed he had a significant customer base and was selling amounts up to half an ounce of methamphetamine, for which he charged $11,000.
When police searched his Aldinga Beach house, they found the meth, ticklists, $8000 and the instructional document.
Dunk pleaded guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking.
Brittany Armstrong, for Dunk, told the court her client was significantly addicted to meth at the time of the offending.
“He would go up to four or five days without sleep and he wasn’t working at that time,” she said.
Dunk was arrested in November 2021 during Serious and Organised Crime Branch police raids that uncovered $155,000 in cash, 40g of methamphetamine, two cars and three motorcycles.
Searches at properties in Sellicks Beach, Modbury North, Windsor Gardens and Holden Hill allegedly led to discoveries of more methamphetamine, 100g of cocaine, 5kg of pseudoephedrine, 1kg of iodine, 2L of hypo-phosphorous acid and a clandestine lab.
The court heard Blake Eric Thompson, previously jailed for 13 years after he pleaded guilty to 89 counts of drug trafficking and one count of money laundering, was at the apex of the enterprise.
Dunk will be sentenced at a later date.
Kimberley Vera Hudson
A mother of seven who previously used an axe to threaten emergency service workers seeking to help her from her wrecked car was sentenced for violent assaults for the second time in as many years.
A “heavily intoxicated” Kimberley Vera Hudson, 37, committed a range of offences including stealing from and assaulting employees at a Thirsty Camel bottle shop and a bike shop at College Park.
In footage released to the Advertiser, an employee of 99 Bikes tells Hudson to leave after a theft attempt.
Hudson can be seen in the footage grappling with the employee before launching into a violent tirade, yelling “f**k off” while hitting the male employees and throwing things before yelling, “don’t hurt me c**t” as two employees drag her out the door.
She returned a short time later and threatened a worker with a glass breaker before stealing a mountain bike.
In a second video from an assault only an hour later, Hudson is stopped by an employee at the Thirsty Camel bottle shop while stealing alcohol when she begins to attack – including pelting the employee with cans.
Hudson pleaded guilty to the multiple counts of assault and theft from March 2024.
In his victim impact statement, the bottle shop employee said he was left “concussed, bruised and shaken”.
Judge Heath Barklay sentenced Hudson to one year and one month jail, with a non-parole period of four months.
The sentence was backdated to October 4, meaning Hudson was eligible for parole on date of sentencing.
Tyler Michael Ford
A cocaine dealer turned in by his ex-partner who told police about drugs under the kitchen sink tried to serve his sentence at home with his new partner – a former customer.
Tyler Michael Ford, 27 - who was denounced for his dishonesty despite references speaking to his “integrity” - was instead ordered to live with his parents on home detention after he turned to trafficking despite living a privileged life.
During sentencing, the District Court heard police attended Ford’s Hillbank house on October 17, 2022, after a call about a domestic disturbance.
Ford’s former partner, former North Adelaide SANFLW player May Eichner, 34, told police Ford was a drug dealer.
The court heard 22g of cocaine, valued at up to $8800, was found under a sink in the couple’s home.
The pair pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges.
During Eichner’s sentencing submissions, the court heard she was assisting Ford with his drug enterprise because of alleged coercive control and “misguided desire” to secure his approval.
The court heard Eichner was not motivated by profit but received free cocaine from Ford, who she was no longer in a relationship with, in return for her role in the offending.
She was sentenced in March to five months’ jail, which was suspended on an 18-month good behaviour bond.
Ford was sentenced to three years and three months’ jail, with a non-parole period of two years.
Samuel John Durante
A young man was told to “get a job” by one of the state’s top judges after illegally dumping tyres along a Mid-North road just one month after being fined for the same conduct.
Samuel John Durante, 21, fronted the Environment Resources and Development Court in April for sentencing after being found guilty of unlawful disposal of more than 50L of general litter – contravening the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act.
Judge Michael Durrant said Durante, of Cavan, had “exhibited a blatant disregard” for the law and the “requirement to dispose of litter lawfully”.
“You have got to get yourself together and not offend like this again. Get your health right; get a job; do not come back,” Judge Durrant said.
The court heard Durrant had used a white ute and trailer to collect tyres from a home near Reeves Plains.
A witness saw him “disposing” of approximately 20 tyres on a local road reserve.
During an interview Durrant said he had been “invited” to collect the tyres to “send them overseas or give them to farmers”.
Durante was taken to court by the Light Regional Council, which became aware of his illegal activity on March 26, 2024.
A month earlier, he was fined $12,000 after Judge Durrant ruled he had been using social media platforms to offer paid removal services for old tyres on private property – and dumped them in public spaces.
Durante was sentenced to 14 days’ jail, suspended on a $500, one-year good behaviour bond and was ordered to pay a fine of $4000 to council for its legal costs.
Brandon Chesney
A “narcissist” in scrubs masqueraded as a nurse and spent two months infiltrating Adelaide’s largest hospital and performed tests and procedures on a young woman.
Brandon Chesney, 24, was driven by a “need for validation” when he posed as a member of staff for the Royal Adelaide Hospital, a court heard, leaving a “vulnerable” female patient suffering an allergic reaction as a result of his misconduct.
“Over a two-month period you, on 13 occasions, trespassed in the staff-only area of the RAH,” Magistrate Benjamin Sale said during sentencing in March.
“You were masquerading as a member of the hospital staff and your conduct escalated to the point where you stole medical supplies, possessed a false staff identification and treated a vulnerable patient of the hospital.”
Chesney pleaded guilty to assault, serious criminal trespass, dishonestly taking property, possessing prohibited material (identity theft), possessing an unregistered firearm, and being unlawfully on premises after he was busted fraudulently posing as a nurse at the RAH in 2023.
Documents previously released by the court reveal Chesney had been onsite at the RAH “without lawful excuse” 13 times between April 12 and June 12 in 2023.
His young victim, Erin Craig, 23, suffered an allergic reaction when he failed to correctly remove an IV cannula from her – and then administered the wrong tape.
Mr Sale sentenced Chesney to eight months and nine days; jail – suspended upon entering into a two-year good behaviour bond.
Rayn Sadik and Yousif Al-Asadi
Two young Victorian men labelled dispensable “muppets” used to transport South Australia’s second-largest cocaine haul in history were sentenced not once, but twice, in 2025.
Victorian men Rayn Sadik, 20, and Yousif Al-Asadi, 23, were sentenced in early 2025 after attempting to collect nearly $17m worth of cocaine out of a shipment of luxury buses.
In January 2024, Australian Border Force officers intercepted a ship bound for SA from Singapore after receiving intelligence relating to a transnational crime syndicate.
Four luxury buses on the ship were searched by Border Force maritime officers who found suspicious packages containing 139kg of cocaine.
Sadik and Al-Asadi both pleaded guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, and were jailed for three years and one day, taking into account a 25 per cent discount for early guilty pleas.
The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the pair’s jail term, calling the sentence “manifestly inadequate”.
The sentence had a non-parole period of 18 months, backdated to the date they were taken into custody in February 2024, meaning they would be eligible for parole in August.
In handing down their appeal judgment, President Mark Livesey, Justice Sam Doyle and Justice Sophie David found the existing sentence would affect “public confidence” in the justice system.
The court re-sentenced both men to a period of nine years in prison, which, after a 25 per cent discount for their guilty pleas, was decreased to six years and nine months.
Both received non-parole period of four years, meaning they will be eligible for release in February 2028.
Paul Kevan Tilbury
An NDIS fraudster who stole more than $400,000 from clients used the funds for a wild spending spree, splurging nearly $45,000 on clothes, $17,000 on travel, $3500 on Japanese food and buying a $2000 “BDSM bench”.
Paul Kevan Tilbury, 58 – who often falsely referred to himself as ‘Dr Tilbury’ – pleaded guilty to 19 counts of deception, motivated by a desire to portray himself as “successful”.
Judge Paul Muscat said Tilbury, founder and CEO of Adelaide NDIS provider People Come First, “shamefully” submitted $404,000 worth of false NDIS claims in an effort to live the “good life” between 2017 and 2019, a court heard.
James Caldicott, for Tilbury, told the court his client was remorseful for his offending, which “snowballed out of control” after he began “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
His spending included $12,700 on tobacconists, $4700 on restaurants, $7000 on booze and $9600 on jewellery.
That expenditure included a bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism bench used for sexual activity involving physical restraint.
Tilbury’s offending, the court heard, left the family of his victims feeling “distrust toward all NDIS providers”.
“Somewhat ironically, you have recently applied for an NDIS package as a result of your physical and mental health disorders,” Judge Muscat said.
Judge Muscat sentenced Tilbury to three years in jail – of which one year and nine months will be served until he can be released on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Tilbury, of Woodforde, has been banned for life from operating as an NDIS provider.
Jonty Akari
A young aspiring photographer told a court he broke into “dangerous” rooftop spaces of three major CBD high-rise buildings to cope with his mental health issues.
When police seized 19-year-old Jonty Akari’s phone following his arrest in March, they found images and videos of the teen hanging his legs off the side of multiple CBD rooftops after he managed to get through “usually locked” doors.
The Port Noarlunga man was arrested after The Advertiser revealed the extraordinary lengths young people were going to for social media photos for “urbexing” - or urban exploring.
The Urban Dictionary describes urbexing as “the act of going to and exploring places that are not normally visited or often even accessible to the general public”.
Last month, Akari pleaded guilty to three counts of being unlawfully on premises at three locations on King William St, Grenfell St and Gawler Pl between March 26 and April 10, 2024.
The court previously heard video equipment and clothing items matching those seen in the videos were seized from Akari’s home and another property in Reynella.
Counsel for the teen said his client had unlawfully entered the roof spaces of the buildings because he was struggling with his mental health and used it as a form of “therapy”.
Akari, who works casually as a cook at KFC, wrote a letter of apology to the court in which he expressed “sincere remorse”.
Magistrate Patrick Hill said he believed the court process had shown Akari how dangerous his actions had been.
He sentenced the teen to a good behaviour bond in the sum of $250, and did not impose a conviction.
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