Benjamin Thomas Cobley pleaded guilty to stealing, serious assault

Confronted by Coles security guards, a repeat thief didn’t take kindly to being caught. Now, a court has heard it was far from the first time he’d caused strife at shopping centres.

Biting a security guard after he was confronted while trying to steal shower gel from Coles was just one of the reasons a man found himself before Hervey Bay Magistrates Court.

Benjamin Thomas Cobley, 25, pleaded guilty to multiple offences including attempted fraud, stealing, wilful damage and serious assault.

The court heard on October 16 last year, Cobley went to Big W in Pialba, took a bike from the shelf and presented an old receipt to staff members in an attempt to claim a refund.

On November 1, he committed a wilful damage offence, which Magistrate Trinity McGarvie said “just seemed gratuitous damage to property”.

“You decided to kick at the bottom of a door to grab attention of staff and then you punched a glass window, causing that window to smash,” Magistrate McGarvie said.

Then, on November 14, he stole a bottle of liquor from a business in Maroochydore.

His offending continued on November 27 when he tried to take a display speaker from a shelf, giving the speaker to another person who concealed it and took it from a store.

On January 7 this year, Cobley gained entry to a premises via a secured stair access using a metal crowbar, entering a carpark on the Esplanade and attempting to gain entry to a number of cars.

Magistrate McGarvie said the most serious offences arose on November 27.

Cobley was at Sunshine Plaza, where a number of men were working as security guards.

Suspecting Cobley, who looked like he had stuffed pockets, was trying to steal from a business, the guards approached him but he became verbally aggressive, telling them to “get f------”.

He punched another guard with a closed fist, causing bruising and contusions.

Cobley walked out of the store but returned with two stolen bottles of shower gel in his hands.

He went back into the business through an empty checkout where he showed the items to workers and said he wanted to go back in.

Security then attended as part of their patrols and Cobley became “aggressive and agitated” the court heard, telling the officers “f--- you dogs, you aren’t the police”.

He threatened to “bash them” and told the guards he would find their homes and families and bash them.

Cobley then pushed one of the officers in the chest, causing him to stumble back.

He punched another guard with a closed fist, causing bruising and contusions.

He kicked out at another guard after he was caught in a bear hug, before breaking free and running away.

Cobley then stopped, turned and shaped up to the guards again.

He pushed another guard before being taken to the ground.

While he was on the ground, he bit one of the guards on his right hand.

The security guard was wearing thick gloves, which prevented any injury.

Magistrate McGarvie said the guards were at their workplace trying to perform a function of their job.

“They ought not have been assaulted by you,” she said.

The court heard Cobley, who appeared in court via videolink, was a single man who had been doing mowing and maintenance work in Hervey Bay.

He had owned a home, but had “since lost that”, the court was told.

A falling out with a friend had led to a relapse into drug use after being clean for about a year and a half to two years.

Drugs and alcohol had played a role in his offending, the court heard.

His long term intentions were to move to Western Australia to live near his father and find work there.

Cobley had spent 140 days in pre-sentence custody having breached a suspended sentence with the new offences.

He was given a head sentence of nine months and ordered to serve the suspended sentence, bringing the whole term of imprisonment to 13 months.

He was given immediate release on parole, with the time he had already spent in custody declared as time served.