46-year-old burglar sentenced to six months after skipping several court dates
A Redcliffe concreter nabbed because of his distinctive tattoos has been thrown behind bars after breaking into a car yard, trashing cars and then skipping court.
Moreton
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Despite his efforts to hide his identity this 46-year-old concreter has been charged with yet another break and enter offence.
Aaron Reiley Burton appeared in Redcliffe Magistrates Court, while in custody, on Monday – charged with two failure to appear offences and a break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence.
The court heard Burton, from the Moreton Bay Region, north of Brisbane, broke into a Brendale car yard with a mate on January 20, 2019.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant David Pollock told the court CCTV footage showed two men walking around the car yard.
Burton broke into several cars, damaged the rear cargo area of one car and jacked up the rear of another car at about 3am.
Sgt Pollock said while the men were wearing gloves and had their faces covered the CCTV footage had picked up Burton’s distinctive calf tattoo.
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The court heard that incident was just one of nine similar crimes Burton committed that day.
He was convicted and sentenced on July 11, 2019 to two years imprisonment for those crimes.
Magistrate Bucknall said had the fresh incident before the court on Monday been before Caboolture Court on July 11 – it would not have attracted any extra punishment.
As such he decided to convict but not further punish Burton in relation to the break and enter charge.
However it was a different story for the fail to appear charges.
Burton was meant to appear in Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on February 17, 2020 but didn’t attend. He also failed to attend the next court appearance on March 17 at Caboolture Magistrates Court.
Redcliffe police arrested Burton on July 12 at Anzac Ave Rothwell in relation to the warrant.
Magistrate Bucknall said it was not the first time Burton had been convicted for failing to appear.
“You have a lengthy criminal history and on a number of occasions have not complied with your obligations to attend court,” he said.
“You were placed on a suspended sentence for failing to appear on June 29, 2017, a suspended sentence that has been extended on three occasions.
“You now have two further fail to appears.”
Magistrate Bucknall said it was clear a harsher sentence was needed to curb this behaviour.
Burton was sentenced to two months on each count of failing to appear and the two months from the suspended sentence to be served cumulatively – giving him a total of six months behind bars.
A parole eligibility date was sent for September 11.