Richard Allan Martin faces Bundaberg Magistrates Court for theft, break and enter of bus

The 49-year-old claimed to have no knowledge of the incident and that he wasn’t even there but police had evidence that was hard to deny: Here’s how things came undone.

Richard Allan Martin pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court to one count of entering a premises and committing an indictable offence by break.

A bus driver walked into a Cairns restaurant for some food and when he returned to his bus he found a smashed window, blood and his iPad stolen.

Richard Allan Martin, 49, pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Monday to one count of entering a premises and committing an indictable offence by break.

The court heard the victim had parked his bus and went to a restaurant in Cairns North on the evening of May 8.

When he returned he found a window on the driver’s side had been smashed and his iPad was missing.

He also noticed some blood near where the window had been smashed and also on the inside on the dashboard.

A DNA profile was obtained during a forensic examination, which was a match to Martin.

In June police spoke with Martin who told them he knew nothing about the matter and that he had never seen the vehicle before.

He also told officers that he hadn’t been in the area.

When challenged in relation to the DNA profile match, he told officers he had been drinking a lot recently could not remember anything from that night.

Duty lawyer Lani Olafsson, who represented Martin, told the court at the time of the offence her client had moved to Cairns for a new start.

She said he moved into a homeless shelter and fell into a crowd of heavy drinkers.

Ms Olafsson said Martin had “very little” recollection of the events that happened.

She said Martin was now living back into Bundaberg and hadn’t had any issues with alcohol since moving back to the region.

Magistrate Andrew Moloney took into account Martin’s plea of guilty and took it as a sign of his remorse.

Martin was fined $750.