Christopher Peter Kurt West steals $5k from Porters Mitre 10 in Mackay

A Mackay man managed to defraud a trade and hardware store out of thousands of dollars in goods over 12 months by using a method that “wasn’t too sophisticated”.

Porters Mitre 10 Mackay City store. Picture: Contributed

A Mackay man posing as a tradie managed to steal almost $6000 of goods from a CBD trade and hardware store before he was finally caught while drink driving.

Christopher Peter Kurt West, 34, pretended to be an employee of Complete Doors and used the company’s account to purchase various items, defrauding Porters Mitre 10 of more than $5900 between December 18, 2023 and January 31 2024 when he was five months into a two-year suspended jail sentence.

Mackay Magistrate Bronwyn Hartigan told West his “opportunistic” offending was serious.

“It’s true that it’s not sophisticated … you just go, pose as an employee, get the item and off you go,” Ms Hartigan said.

“Probably buoyed by not getting caught you’ve just continued to do that over time.”

The court heard West posed as an employee of Complete Doors Mackay and used their account to purchase various items.

West was also charged for stealing a ring from his flatmate before selling it at Cash Converters for $450.

On February 3, 2024 West was charged with drug driving after marijuana and meth were found in his system.

He failed to appear in court in relation to these charges on May 29 and he was again charged with drug driving on October 17, 2024.

The court heard West struggled with an addiction to drugs and previously faced court for stealing and stealing as a servant.

Ms Hartigan said West was given the opportunity to be on a community order but “that didn’t work”.

She said West showed insight into “the seriousness” of his behaviour because he left all of his belongings at home before appearing in court out of fear he would go to jail.

“That’s actually a good thing,” Ms Hartigan said.

“That is how serious this is.”

Christopher Peter Kurt West faced a raft of charges including eight counts of fraud, stealing and drug driving.

The court heard West’s employer wrote a reference for him and appeared in court to support him, alongside a friend of West.

Ms Hartigan said West got his life back on track and was being given a chance to “stay on this course”.

He was sentenced to an eight month sentence of imprisonment for charges of fraud and theft, as well as another month for failing to appear.

This was added onto his previous suspended sentence to make a total of 21 months imprisonment with an immediate parole release date.

He was also ordered to pay restitution to Porters Mitre 10 Mackay of $5913.21 and had his license disqualified for four months for both counts of drug driving, as well as being fined $1500.

West offered to pay $1300 in restitution immediately, but Ms Hartigan advised against this and told West to “pay it off at the rate that’s realistic to you”.

Convictions were recorded in relation to all charges.