Teenager, 17, charged over alleged car thefts in Casuarina, Ballina, Wollongbar and Nimbin areas
A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged for allegedly stealing cars across northern NSW.
Lismore
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A teenager who allegedly stole cars from across northern NSW has been arrested and charged.
About 3.20pm on Wednesday March 27, police attempted to stop a car on Thorburn St, Nimbin, following reports the vehicle was being driven dangerously.
Officers from the Richmond Police District and Highway and Traffic Patrol Command located the vehicle abandoned nearby on a residential land site on Stewarts Way, Nimbin.
Following inquiries, police arrested a 17-year-old boy at Nimbin Police Station, charging him with multiple driving offences as a part of an investigation under Operation Mongoose North.
The boy was charged with be carried in conveyance taken without consent of owner, dishonesty obtain property by deception, drive conveyance taken without consent of owner, drive while licence cancelled, use class A vehicle displaying misleading number plate, drive recklessly or furiously or speed or manner dangerous, drive while licence cancelled, use unregistered registrable class A motor vehicle on road, use uninsured motor vehicle and not stop vehicle when directed to do so.
Police will allege in court the boy was involved in multiple car thefts across the Casuarina, Wollongbar, Ballina and Nimbin areas.
He was refused bail and appeared before Parramatta Children’s Court on Friday, March 29.
He was remanded in custody to reappear before a local Children’s Court on Friday, April 5.
This comes after a spate of youth crime on the North Coast where a 13-year-old was arrested and charged in Ballina with two counts of aggravated break and enter with intent, having goods suspected of being stolen, larceny and breach of bail.
Two more teenage boys aged 15 and 16 were arrested and charged after car theft, break-ins and spraying a police 4WD with pink graffiti outside a North Coast station.
On March 1, a group of teens aged between 13-16 were arrested and charged after they allegedly stole a Dodge Ram ute from Ballina, broke into a premises, and took police on two chases before being caught on a yacht in Port Macquarie.
More teens aged between 14-17 allegedly took police on a wild chase with a stolen BMW, eventually coming to a stop outside the Taree West shopping centre on Spence St.
Facebook user BJ Bourke wrote: “The kid hanging out the sunroof was probably pooing his undies, the little turds.”
Ballina’s Detective Chief Inspector Bill McKenna APM said this crime trend was similar across the state when he addressed a community meeting into combating youth behaving badly.
“The majority of these offences are being committed by young people who are very well known to police,” DCI McKenna said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the new bail and law reforms on youth crime are “not an easy solution” yet are in place as intervention options to “help prevent crime and give young people a chance at life”.
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