Joshua Peter Symonds sentenced in court for stealing

A man has claimed in court that he doesn’t drink alcohol, despite stealing bottles of liquor on four occasions from Liquorland stores in Rockhampton. Full details.

A man has claimed in court that he doesn’t drink alcohol, despite stealing bottles of liquor on four occasions from Liquorland stores in Rockhampton.

Joshua Peter Symonds, 35, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Magistrates Court on March 24 to four counts of stealing.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Sarah Rowe said Symonds took a 700ml bottle of Chivas Regal from Liquorland Allenstown on January 29.

Senior Constable Rowe said Symonds placed multiple bottles in a basket, went into the cold room and started to put the bottles into paper bags, however, was interrupted by staff who took the visible bottles and one of the paper bags.

Joshua Peter Symonds, 35, appeared in Rockhampton Magistrates Court on March 24, 2022.

She said Symonds took a 1 litre bottle of Jack Daniels from the same store on February 11 at 4.23pm.

Senior Constable Rowe said Symonds took the bottle into the cold room, placed it into a plastic bag and left.

She said Symonds took a 1 litre bottle of Jack Daniels from Liquorland North Rockhampton in Stockland Rockhampton Shopping Centre on February 12 at 10.40am, placing the bottle in his backpack before leaving the store.

Senior Constable Rowe said Symonds took two 1 litre bottles of Bundaberg Rum from the same store on February 18 at 11.10am, again placing the bottles in his backpack before leaving the store.

She said $66 restitution was sought for the two bottles of Bundaberg Rum.

Defence lawyer Samantha Legrady said her client’s quality of life wasn’t great at the time of the offending.

Ms Legrady said since her client had been sober, he hadn’t “felt like he needed to do anything like that again”.

“He tried to pay back the money to two of the locations,” she said.

“He would like the court to know he has made an effort to change his ways and is very sorry.”

Symonds stated in court, “I don’t drink”, despite stealing the bottles of alcohol, which Magistrate Jason Schubert pointed out.

“I stole the bottles to get stimulants because that’s what works for me,” he said.

Symonds was ordered to 10 months’ probation with criminal convictions recorded.