Max Peter Nation: Steals thousands from near dozen businesses for pokie, drug habit

A gambling drug user came up with some interesting tricks to steal cash from under the noses of unwary store workers.

A drug-addicted gambler’s sophisticated range of tricks used to steal cash from under the noses of unwary shop workers have been outlined in court.

Max Peter Nation, 29, fronted Cleveland Magistrates Court on December 8.

He pleaded guilty to 27 charges including stealing; attempted stealing; receiving tainted property and possessing dangerous drugs.

The serial drug abuser stole items and cash totalling $3806 over 12 months, the court heard.

Max Peter Nation spent his stolen money on drugs and pokies.

The court heard Nation used his phone to steal money from a supermarket in January.

In the brazen theft, he asked the Coles worker for change.

As the staffer opened the till, Nation recorded the register’s code with his phone.

When the worker was not looking, Nation played the recording, causing the till to open and allowing him to steal $500.

He also took $480 from a cash register at a Brisbane City IGA, where he was captured on CCTV and he pocketed $800 by hitting the “no sale” button on a register at a Victoria Point Woolworths.

It was not Nation’s first appearance at Cleveland Magistrates Court. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

In another theft he dropped a rack of stationary to the ground at a Victoria Point office supply store and while workers were distracted, he stole $75.

Nation also took around $800 worth of cigarettes from a store as well as items from assorted retailers, with the court hearing he was using his crimes to fund drug and gambling habits.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Duncan Blackburn said his “totally unacceptable” offending showed a level of planning and “apparent total disregard” of the law and that jail was the only deterrent for the repeat offender.

Nation was granted immediate parole release.

Nation’s defence solicitor Brittany White said her client had graduated Year 12, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and autism and planned to apply for a disability pension and the NDIS.

On his release he would live with his parents in Victoria Point.

Magistrate Deborah Vasta said the courts had “given him so many chances” by releasing him into the community.

However, the magistrate said she did not believe Nation would stop offending.

“I would put money on … nothing changes.”

In sentencing, she took into account the seven weeks he spent on remand and he had served 212 days in the past year.

His suspended jail sentences were activated and he was sentenced to nine months’s prison, wholly suspended over two years.

Nation was granted immediate release with a 12-month parole order.