Brian James Pitt sentenced for stealing $1k from friend’s bank account

A Maroochydore man has stolen more than $1k from a friend’s online bank account and lied about paying it back before pulling off petrol drive-offs nearly a year later.

A Maroochydore man has stolen more than $1000 from a friend’s online bank account and lied to the victim about paying it back before committing petrol thefts months later.

Brian James Pitt, 45, was convicted for four offences at Caloundra Magistrates Court on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, including two charges of stealing, one charge of fraud by dishonestly obtaining property from another and one charge of failing to take reasonable care and precautions in respect of syringe.

The court heard on July 22, 2021 a woman known to the 45-year-old told police three unauthorised transactions had been made on her NAB account totalling $1050 in three separate amounts in as many days.

The deposits included $600 on July 20, $250 on July 21, and $200 on July 22 which were found to have been made to a Suncorp bank account under Pitt’s name after NAB investigated the matter.

The woman told police she had used his phone on a previous occasion to access her online banking service which saved her login details as she did not have internet access at the time

She said the two had been friends six months prior to his offending and later confronted Pitt about the incident who told her that he would repay the money.

Brian James Pitt: Social media

Pitt also drove to Bokarina Liberty service station on February 25, 2022, about 6.40pm and refuelled a car which did not have a registration plate with $28.62 of petrol and told the store attendant he did not have money to pay for it.

Pitt refused to provide his driver’s license and revisit the station to pay and drove away a short time later.

The 45-year-old then went to Woolworths petrol station in Warana on March 18 at 3pm and loaded $13.79 of fuel into another friend’s car he was using at the time and told the staff member he did not have his credit card at the time to pay for it before driving off.

On May 3, Pitt admitted to committing the offences as well as possessing a syringe without reasonable care to police.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Stuart Lydford asked for Pitt to pay restitution of $1050 for the bank account fraud as well as $42.41 for the two petrol thefts.

Pitt did not have legal representation and told the court he suffered from PTSD and had a job where he was paying $40 a week to cover a SPER debt for earlier offences.

Magistrate Raelene Ellis said Pitt had committed a string of dishonesty offences over the past nine to 10 months.

“You’ve taken active steps to move money from someone else’s bank account without their consent and that is a significant breach of trust given it was a friend of yours,” Magistrate Ellis said.

“Despite you saying both to her and this court that you’d repay, you haven’t presented to me any evidence of any steps you’ve taken to pay that back.

“That coloured with a history of the fact you’ve had an unauthorised dealing of goods in October last year demonstrates to me that you have undertaken a dishonesty streak of offences in this period of time.”

Pitt was convicted for all four offences and fined $750 which would be added to his SPER debt which exceeded $5000.

He was ordered to pay $1050 in restitution for the bank account theft, $28.62 for stealing petrol at Liberty service station in Bokarina, and $13.79 for fuel theft at Woolworths petrol station in Warana.