FRESH-FACED OFFENDERS: Crimes of 10 young people exposed
A recent influx of young people through the north Brisbane court system has seen fresh-faced offenders charged with everything form shoplifting to assault.
Moreton
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A common refrain at the Magistrates Courts in Brisbane’s north is that sometimes young people will make stupid mistakes and sometimes those mistakes will land them in trouble with the law.
According to Pine Rivers Magistrate Trevor Morgan, who addressed one such defendant this week, those young people usually learn from the consequences of their “stupid decisions” and, when given the chance, often go on to stay out of strife.
Here is a list of young offenders who have recently appeared before the court, and the consequences they’ve faced.
GLEN PATRICK JAMES TURNER
21-year-old Nudgee College graduate Glen Patrick James Turner is a “slow learner”, according to Pine Rivers Magistrates Court Magistrate Trevor Morgan.
Turner appeared at court for the fifth time on November 9 when he pleaded guilty to a single charge of obstructing police, in violation of a good behaviour bond he’d been placed on in July.
The court heard Turner and two of his friends were questioned and searched by police at the Petrie train station just after 6.30pm on Thursday, August 13.
Turner cooperated with police until they attempted to search his friend, at which point he became aggravated and tried to stop the officer.
“A violent struggle ensued”, according to the police prosecutor, prompting the officers to use force to arrest Turner and transport him to the watch house.
He was fined $300 and ordered to pay the $300 good behaviour bond.
No conviction was recorded, however the Magistrate warned Turner the rest of his life is going to be “stuffed” unless he smartens up his act.
Unemployed and heartbroken, 22-year-old Kayla-Rose Kelly faced the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on November 4 where she claimed she had no memory of stealing close to $400 worth of stock from Sephora at Chermside.
The court heard Kelly started drinking heavily and taking anti-anxiety medication Xanax when she discovered her partner had been cheating on her.
Kelly, an alumnus of prestigious Brisbane private school Mary MacKillop College, claimed through her defence lawyer that the medication made her act out-of-character and commit several acts of theft she was later unable to recall.
According to the police prosecutor, Kelly stole over $460 worth of goods from both liquor and makeup stores between July 17 and 18.
She pleaded guilty to three charges of stealing, fined $800 and ordered to pay restitution to Sephora for the loss of stock.
No conviction was recorded.
The court heard Bailey Aiden Wilkes, 20, got so drunk on a night out at the Eatons Hill hotel on August 22 that he didn’t remember stumbling into a 7 Eleven car park and using his elbow to violently smash in the rear window of a random car.
CCTV footage showed Wilkes approaching the back of the car and using his right elbow to strike the windscreen, destroying and shattering the glass, before leaving on foot.
Wilkes pleaded guilty to one charge of wilful damage on October 27.
Lawyer for the defence Steven Brough of Clarity Law told the court Wilkes did not have anger management issues – Rather, he was simply “stupid and drunk”.
Magistrate Melanie Ho sentenced Wilkes to a 12 month $500 good behaviour bond and ordered him to pay the car owner $413 in restitution.
No conviction was recorded.
Self-care became self-destructive for 20-year-old Tamblyn Models’ model Bonnie Skea who stole fresh bed sheets, a scented candle and hand sanitiser from Myer.
On October 13 Sandgate Magistrates Court heard that Skea was going through a bad break up when she made the “out of character” decision to take $360 worth of homewares without paying for them on August 1.
Skea returned the items immediately and no restitution was sought.
She was put on a good behaviour bond of $400 for six months and no conviction was recorded.
Serial offender Keera Power was sentenced to nine months in prison at the Sandgate Magistrates Court on October 16 after he was busted trying to break into a car.
The court heard Power, who at the time was just 20-years-old, was captured on CCTV footage arriving at a home at Cook St at Northgate.
Power appeared via videolink from the Woodford Correctional Facility and pleaded guilty to a single charge of attempting to enter a premises with an intent to commit an indictable offence.
Power, who has been “in and out of prison” for many years, was subject to three parole orders at the time of the offence.
He was convicted and sentenced to nine months imprisonment with immediate eligibility for parole, given his time served since his arrest on April 21.
NICHOLAS JAMES ROMAN LEON NOVAK
23-year-old Nicholas James Roman Leon Novak was booking it home after a wild afternoon on the beers when he caught the attention of a security guard outside of the North Lakes library and chaos ensued, the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court heard last week.
The young Caboolture man told the court he was having a bad day when he decided to drink 10 schooners of heavy beer in quick succession.
The court heard he was slurring and staggering outside the library when he smashed an empty bottle of Corona beer on the ground, prompting security to ask him to leave.
According to the police prosecutor, Novak repeatedly and aggressively denied security’s request, throwing punches the guard was able to dodge.
The security guard physically restrained Novak and called the police, who arrived and placed Novak under arrest.
Novak continued to fight back, kicking a police officer in the leg and stiffening his body to make it difficult for police to place him in the police van.
Novak pleaded guilty to four charges including public nuisance, assault and obstructing police.
He told the court he was “deeply embarrassed” and apologised to the police officer he kicked.
He was fined $500 and no conviction was recorded.
A 15-year-old child was punched in the face and pushed into a bush when 21-year-old Sinapati Daniel Tofa decided he was taking up too much of the footpath, the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court heard on October 28.
The self-professed “king of the hood” pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy on a North Lakes footpath just before 3pm on August 11.
The lawyer for the defence said Tofa “acted out of character” and took those frustrations out on the child, picking him up by the collar and throwing him off his bike and into a nearby bush.
The police prosecutor told the court Tofa then stood over the boy with his fists clenched and told him he was “the king of the hood” and the boy was “just (his) little b***h”, which scared the child and his friends.
The assault left the child with minor scratches to his left leg, right arm, and the left side of his face.
Magistrate Melanie Ho sentenced Tofa to nine months of probation and ordered him to pay $500 in compensation to the boy.
No conviction was recorded.
20-year-old Logan Corey Bone was caught with hundreds of illegal pills and thousands in cash and warned he could have faced jail time if police had level more serious charges, when he appeared at Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on October 16.
Bone pleaded guilty to five charges including possessing dangerous drugs and illegally possessing restricted drugs.
The court heard police pulled over a car driving on Morayfield Rd in Burpengary that Bone, 20, was a passenger in.
Bone told police he had nothing illegal on him but when police searched the car they found a backpack between Bone’s feet containing 9.3 grams of cocaine, 397 tablets of Valium and 29 tablets of benzodiazepine.
In another bag in the car police found a small quantity of cannabis.
In March, Bone was at Maroochydore’s Sunshine Plaza when police approached him after security guards alerted them to “suspicious behaviour”.
Police searched Bone’s bag and found 27 xanax tablets and $4800 in cash.
Bone told police the cash came from some “cash in hand” work he had been doing and it was returned.
Bone was ordered to serve probation for 12 months.
A teenager street racer who was caught red handed at North Lakes traffic lights was fined and ordered off the roads on October 13.
Jacob Mario Lenoble was found guilty at Pine Rivers Magistrates Court of racing after taking the charge to trial.
The court heard on Friday, October 11, 2019, two police officers in a marked car heard a loud engine revving at a set of lights in North Lakes.
The officers turned their car around and drove behind the group of four cars that were pulled up at a red light.
Then the lights turned green, the two front cars, one the Lenoble was driving, accelerated away heavily.
The court heard police estimated they reached about 100kmh in a 70kmh zone.
When speaking to police at the scene Lenoble admitted he had been racing.
Magistrate Trevor Morgan found Lenoble’s actions did constitute a race and there did not need to be a spoken plan before the two cars took off.
Lenoble was found guilty. He was fined $500 and disqualified from driving for six months.
His car, which was impounded, was forfeited.
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