Locklen Alexander Sheehy on fraud and unlawful entry charges

A sleepy thief has returned to the familiar surroundings of his local courthouse with long list of fresh charges after he was woken up mid-crime.

A young Bundaberg man, who started reoffending two weeks into his parole for similar crimes, has returned to court.

Locklen Alexander Sheehy was homeless and looking for property he could sell to buy drugs in October last year when fingerprints revealed he’d broken into a car on Walker St and stolen items from within it.

On October 29, 2021, he broke into another car and fell asleep.

The court heard that when Sheehy was woken, he uttered “I didn’t mean to rob a car”.

But on that same day, Sheehy stole a woman’s purse, including personal papers and bank cards, and took one of her bank cards on a fraudulent spree where he clocked up $1240.87 worth of spending on 17 transactions around Bundaberg.

The court heard Sheehy had a disadvantaged upbringing and had suffered the loss of his brother and father which had pushed him into using meth from the age of 18.

Bundaberg Magistrate Edwina Rowan described Sheehy’s offending as low level, but persistent.

Sheehy’s history of crime however, had not been of the nature where anyone had ever been physically harmed.

He pleaded guilty to 20 charges, including one of enter premises and commit indictable offence by break, one of the unlaw entry of a vehicle for committing an indictable offence, one count of stealing and 17 counts of fraud relating to the bank card transactions.

Sheehy, who spent 115 days in custody, was given a head sentence of nine months, to be wholly suspended for 12 months.