Patrick Abib Achire pleads guilty to being in possession of tainted property

A man found inside a vacant Redbank Plains house had somehow acquired a bundle of passports and bank cards belonging to other people.

Worried neighbours called police when they saw a stranger wandering around inside a vacant house at midnight.

Officers arrived to investigate and the intruder turned out to be Patrick Achire, who happened to be in possession of a pile of bank cards and passports belonging to other people, an Ipswich court heard.

Appearing from jail via video-link before Ipswich Magistrates Court, the offender Patrick Abib Achire, 31, from Redbank Plains, pleaded guilty to being in possession of tainted property on April 4.

Prosecutor Sergeant Chris O’Neill said Achire had identified himself correctly to police when he was spoken to just after midnight.

The court heard Achire had a wallet that held cards belonging to three other people. Achire also held several passports belonging to other people.

The items were seized and Achire arrested and taken to the watch-house.

“Was he squatting in the house?” Magistrate Virginia Sturgess asked.

“He knew the people who used to live there. He was not charged with trespass,” Sgt O’Neill said.

Ms Sturgess said he had received significant history for offences of dishonesty and violence.

In February the Brisbane Magistrates Court sentenced him to nine months jail and an 18-month probation order.

She noted that the tainted items he was found with belonged to four different people.

Taking into account his existing sentence Ms Sturgess fined him $300. This meant his parole would not be cancelled.