Dylon Jay Read has been jailed after stealing $29,750 from his then girlfriend and blowing it on drugs

A Warwick man who moved to Central Queensland for a new life with hopes of getting work in the mining industry, has been sent to prison, with his lengthy criminal record coming back to bite him. Here’s how his case played out.

A man nearing the end of his traineeship at a Central Queensland mine has been sent to prison after he stole more than $29,000 from a then girlfriend and blew most of the money on drugs.

Dylon Jay Read, 32, was sentenced in Rockhampton Magistrates Court on March 22 after he pleaded guilty at earlier court proceedings to one count each of fraud and using a restricted computer without consent.

Read’s offending happened at Toowoomba and the victim was a 25-year-old woman.

In September of 2018, the woman went to police after she noticed multiple unlawful transfers were made from her bank account.

The transfers, totalling $29,750, were made to a number of other accounts without her knowledge or authority.

The woman told police that at the time the transactions were made, she was in a relationship with Read, who may have known the pin code to her phone as well as her internet banking details.

Following police investigations, Read was charged.

The court heard Read had a lengthy criminal history which was littered with dishonesty offences.

Police prosecutor Clancy Fox submitted that Read’s breach of trust with this offending, the amount of money involved, and his “very serious” criminal history with dishonesty offences, meant he faced a head sentence “towards the upper end of the range that is available for frauds”.

“In my submission, Your Honour would consider two-and-a-half to three years’ imprisonment with a requirement that he serve a third before being released on parole,” Mr Fox said.

Solicitor Jess King said Read accepted that he made the fraudulent transactions at a time when he and the victim were in a relationship “and both heavily using methamphetamine”.

“He instructs he can’t specifically recall what all of the money was used for, but he can effectively indicate that he knows a large portion of that would have been to buy drugs and consume drugs,” Ms King said.

“He acknowledges that he didn’t have the complainant’s consent to make those transactions.”

Ms King said Read had made the fraudulent transactions because in the past, the complainant had “transferred smaller amounts to him for the purposes of them sourcing drugs”.

“Mr Read instructs that the relationship continued for some time after those transactions, and it’s not until early 2019 that their relationship ultimately came to an end,” Ms King said.

“There’s no real explanation as to the delay in the offences and what appears to be a complaint to police, and then when Mr Read was spoken to by police.

“He wasn’t spoken to by police until July of 2020.”

Ms King said in early 2019, Read moved from the Toowoomba/Warwick area to Biloela where he had “effectively started a new life” away from “the drug scene”.

Ms King said Read, who was born in Warwick and grew up there, had used drugs since he was 14 - turning to them at that age because of personal reasons.

“And that (drug use) was immediately with methamphetamine,” the solicitor said.

Ms King said Read “regularly used amphetamine for at least 10 years” and he was using drugs when he committed these offences.

She said Read was now drug-free and had not used drugs for about two years.

“And that is effectively since he moved to the Biloela area,” Ms King said, before she tendered documentation to the court supporting Read’s drug rehabilitation efforts.

Ms King said Read was currently in a full-time traineeship at Biloela’s Callide Mine, which at the end of two years (June, 2022) would see him employed.

The court heard that Read had paid none of the $29,750 back to the victim in this matter.

Ms King ultimately submitted that Read should not go to jail as this matter would fall into “a category of exceptional circumstance” given the rehabilitation that had happened in the three years since the offences occurred.

Magistrate Cameron Press told Ms King that he “did not accept that rehabilitation trumps everything”.

“I do not accept that and I will not be applying sentencing principles on that basis,” Mr Press said.

“Because what that says, and the message that would send to the community is ‘go out and do as many courses as you can, just complete courses - courses after courses. And then you go to court and you say, well look at the extent of the rehabilitation I’ve done’.”

Before Mr Press delivered sentence, he outlined Read’s lengthy criminal record (see below) including a “poor history” of dishonesty offending.

Mr Press also noted the loss of almost $30,000 would be “detrimental and felt by most people” and that Read had failed to make any reparation.

The magistrate said that given Read’s training and skills set, he saw no reason why Read would not be able to obtain gainful employment to make reparation following an appropriate period of actual imprisonment.

Mr Press sentenced Read to 18 months’ jail, suspended after he serves four months, for an operational period of 18 months.

Mr Press also ordered Read pay the full amount of restitution, being $29,750.

Read’s criminal record (as read by Magistrate Press):

- Convicted in Warwick Magistrates Court in March, 2007, on one count of entering premises and commit;

- Convicted in Toowoomba Magistrates Court in February, 2008, of burglary and commit (placed on probation);

- Convicted in a Warwick court in November, 2009, of four counts of stealing; two counts of fraud, as well as some bail offences (terms of imprisonment imposed with actual jail time served).

- Convicted in a Warwick court in March, 2012, on one count of burglary and commit (sentenced to four months’ imprisonment with immediate parole release);

- Convicted in Warwick Magistrates Court in July, 2012, of entering premises and commit indictable offence (sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with a parole eligibility date two months’ post-sentence).

- Convicted in Toowoomba Magistrates Court in July, 2013, on two counts of attempted unlawful use of motor vehicle, failing to stop a motor vehicle, ten counts of stealing, three counts of burglary, eight counts of unlawful use of motor vehicle, four counts of entering premises and commit, fraud, two counts of possessing tainted property (sentenced to imprisonment for three years including serving actual jail time).