Aimee Haynes sentenced over Warwick thefts

A serial Warwick thief was back stealing just weeks after being placed on a suspended jail sentence for similar crimes, with a court told of the devastating effects drugs have had on her.

Aimee Pearl Haynes, 32, was sentenced in Warwick Magistrates Court for a shocking theft spree through the town CBD. Picture: Facebook

A Warwick woman who was back stealing just one month after being spared jail time for other thefts has been warned she is on her final chance before a long stint behind bars.

Aimee Pearl Haynes was placed on a suspended jail sentence in June after pleading guilty to stealing from a Warwick charity store, Big W and Priceline.

Despite narrowly avoiding serving actual jail time, Haynes was back thieving just one month later.

The 33-year-old was caught on CCTV stealing a set of Remington clippers a customer placed on a seat outside the Telstra store while the owner spoke with staff inside, the Warwick Magistrates Court was told.

Magistrate Virginia Sturgess noted that after being released from the watch-house and told her bail conditions included not returning to Rose City Shoppingworld, Haynes was busted by security in the food court at 1pm the same day.

“Your excuse was you were hungry and decided to go buy a kebab, and you were in possession of the bail undertaking and the banning notice at the time,” Ms Sturgess said.

Haynes then carried out a daring theft at Toowoomba’s Myer store on October 4, where she took $500 of clothing.

“CCTV footage showed you approaching the women’s fashion section, selecting women’s clothing, draping the clothes over your left arm and then leaving the store without making any attempt to pay,” Ms Sturgess said.

“Alarms sounded, due to the security tags remaining on the clothes, you did not look back at the alarms and continued to walk out the store and left the area in a taxi.

“So you could afford a taxi but not, obviously, to pay for the clothes you took.”

Defence lawyer Phil Crook said his client took the clothes because she was homeless at the time.

Police located Haynes in a motel a short time later, where she told officers she no longer had the clothing, with police only recovering one item with the Myer tag still on it.

Aimee Pearl Haynes loaded a trolley with items in the Warwick K-Hub store and walked out without paying for more than $400 worth of good.

Haynes tried a similar method at Warwick’s K-hub store about two months later, loading up a trolley with more than $400 worth of items and simply walking out.

The theft was caught on CCTV, which led police straight to the mother of two.

Ms Sturgess said Haynes’ history was littered with similar crimes.

“I’ve looked through your criminal history and you just have quite a significant history for doing identical offences,” she said.

“I counted through 22 previous dishonesty offences, ranging from shop stealing to stealings to frauds, one prior trespass and at least 11 previous breach bail offences.

“Most significantly it’s the recent criminal history; you were dealt with on June 12 last year … pretty much identical to what I am dealing with today.

“Unfortunately you keep making victims out of other people.”

Ms Sturgess said it was clear the court orders were having little impact on the serial thief.

“You had 12 months to, effectively, not commit offences to avoid being liable to serve that jail term suspended, (and) you offended within one month,” she said.

“You didn’t even last a month.”

“That wasn’t enough to make you not steal from (Myer) on October 4 and not steal from (Target).

“Clearly a suspended sentence was completely useless. It did nothing at all to prevent you reoffending.

“I strongly suspect the only thing that is going to stop you committing offences, Miss Haynes, is if you are remanded in custody and don’t have the opportunity to go into shops and steal from them.”

An assessment prepared for the court indicated Haynes was diagnosed with psychotic disorder and borderline personality disorder, “due to multiple drug use and use of psychoactive substances”.

Haynes pleaded guilty to two counts of trespass, three of stealing, breaching bail and failing to appear. Her three-month suspended sentence from June was also activated.
She was sentenced to nine months’ jail but released on immediate parole, and ordered to pay full restitution for the stolen property.