Revealed: Geelong’s dimmest criminals and dumbest crooks
From selling drugs to undercover cops, bungled burglaries and driving on the wrong side of the road, these are some of Geelong’s dumbest criminals to front court in recent times. SEE THE LIST.
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Some crooks are described as masterminds, devious and calculating villains who plot elaborate heists and nefarious schemes.
Others, less so.
Many of those who face Geelong’s courts do so for crimes magistrates describe as bizarre or defying explanation, like driving on the wrong side of a busy highway, a bollard-snatching bodybuilder, or a thief stealing a bird that just happened to land on his shoulder.
Others crooks are simply the farthest thing from masterminds, leaving behind IDs or phones at the scene of the crime, or one hapless thief who left his bag of loot inside a house he was robbing, before knocking on the door to ask for it back.
Here are some of the dumbest criminals to go through Geelong courts in recent times.
Jed Jeanes
Jed Jeanes met two undercover cops outside Geelong police station in May 2022.
Two years later, the Mount Duneed man was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for trafficking drugs and firearms, after thinking he’d made two new friends in the covert officers.
After striking up a conversation outside the cop shop, the officers had given Jeanes a lift home.
The 29-year-old gave the officers a tour of his property and sold them two litres of 1,4 butanediol for $5500 and a shotgun for $7000.
Kate Wilson
A serial shoplifter, Kate Wilson, 35, was last week convicted of stealing from tool shops in Colac and Geelong, as well as stealing over $1000 of groceries, including $300 of smoked salmon, from Highton Woolworths.
During one robbery, Wilson accidentally left her phone behind in a basket after leaving with stolen tools stashed down her pants.
When she realised she’d left her phone behind, she had to race back into the hardware store she’d just robbed and get it.
Wilson was convicted and fined $750 for the spree.
Timothy Luke Gipp
A bird landed on the shoulder of Timothy Gipp, 45, while he was perusing the Victorian Bird Company pet store in Norlane.
Gipp then walked out of the store without paying for the with the bird, worth $300.
Gipp’s lawyer, Adrian Paull, described the theft as a “strange offence” and said his client had entered the shop with no intention of stealing but became friendly with it.
The bird was never recovered. Gipp was jailed for 60 days.
Troy Anthony Wilson
While robbing a Belmont home, Troy Wilson was startled and hastily fled, before realising he’d left his backpack of loot inside the home.
Wilson knocked on the door of the house and asked for it back.
The offence was part of a crime spree that Wilson pleaded guilty to in November last year, that spanned 2022 and 2023.
Wilson stole jewellery, credit cards, passports and even opened Christmas presents belonging to victims.
He was sentenced to five months behind bars.
Sam Michael Stevenson
In a “bizarre” midnight heist, bodybuilder Sam Stevenson stole an ashtray and bollard from the carpark of Corio Village shopping centre in December 2022.
Stevenson pleaded guilty to the theft last month and was sentenced to a six-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay restitution for the stolen bollard.
The court heard the drunken bodybuilder was initially unable to remove the bollard with hands, but didn’t give up – he left and returned in a white van with an axe.
The entire incident was captured on CCTV.
Police officers later searched the van, where they reported cigarette butts and water, but not the bollard.
Glen Andrew Bennett
Glen Bennett was last month jailed after bungling two break-in attempts at the Gordon.
Bennett, 44, tried to squeeze through a door to the TAFE campus, but was unable to fit through and fled the scene.
He returned a week later, this time attempting to remove screws from the doorframe before fleeing on foot.
A court heard the failed attempts occurred during a theft spree, where Bennett also broke into the Curlewis Golf Club and took $1386 worth of meat from Woolworths in Kingston Village Square shopping centre in Ocean Grove.
Jatan Desai
After six minutes of “incredibly dangerous behaviour” on the road, Jatan Desai won’t be driving for two years.
A concerned member of the public spotted Desai, 28, speeding on the wrong side of the road on the Geelong Ring Road about 1am on November 9.
The Mount Duneed man only stopped when the police deployed road spikes.
When interviewed by police, Desai said he “wasn’t hurting anybody”.
He was charged with reckless conduct endangering serious injury, refusing a breath test, cannabis possession and failing to stop on police directions.
Desai was convicted and sentenced to a community corrections order for 15 months.
Kelly Webb
When workers at a Waurn Ponds takeaway shop found their bags had been rifled through, they didn’t have long to wait to discover the culprit.
While looking through the bags in a staff-only area and stealing cash, Kelly Webb left behind a crucial piece of evidence - a court heard that the thief left her Medicare card in one of the backpacks.
The theft was one of 32 charges Webb faced, including burglary, theft, nine counts of shop-theft, theft of a motor vehicle and four counts of drug possession, as well as possessing counterfeit money, retaining stolen goods and numerous bail offences.
For these charges, Webb was convicted and fined $300 and placed on an 18 month community corrections order.
Cody Williams
Cody Williams and a friend had entered the backyard of a Newtown home during a four-day crime spree that spanned Armstrong Creek, Torquay and Highton.
Startled by a barking dog, Williams, 26, dropped his phone at the scene when the duo fled.
The next morning when the pair returned to look for the phone, it was gone – found by a witness and handed in to police.
Williams and his co-accused earlier stole $227,000 worth of cars, including three Mazdas, a Mercedes Benz and an Audi from across the region.
For the spree, Williams was handed an 18-month corrections order on top of the 163 days he’d spent in prison, was disqualified for driving for a year and fined $400.
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