‘Little enterprise’: Luke Raymond Balderson and Justine Margaret Dalrymple sentenced for copper thefts

An underground copper operation which resold over $65,000 worth of stolen copper has been unearthed in Townsville - and the mum and dad behind it have finally been named.

Luke Raymond Balderson, 34, was sentenced on Thursday, June 12 in Townsville Magistrates Court for an illegal copper flipping enterprise.

An underground copper operation which resold over $65,000 worth of stolen copper in Townsville has been unearthed - and the mum and dad behind it named.

Luke Raymond Balderson, 34, was described as the brains behind the copper flipping enterprise during his sentencing in Townsville Magistrates Court on Thursday, June 12.

The court heard when the scrap metal yards started to suspect his copper was stolen, Balderson enlisted his partner, Justine Margaret Dalrymple, to start selling for him.

Balderson pleaded guilty to multiple crimes including fraud, possession of tainted property, and receiving tainted property, for criminal activity police believe stretched from late 2022 to 2025.

Balderson’s defence lawyer Michael Spearman said his client was an unskilled labourer, who’d been employed most of his life in bricklaying and landscaping jobs.

Luke Raymond Balderson, 34, and his partner Justine Margaret Dalrymple were sentenced on Thursday, June 12 in Townsville Magistrates Court for an illegal copper flipping enterprise.

Mr Spearman said the whole ordeal started when Balderson picked up a meth habit he couldn’t afford.

“Clearly his problem has been drug use,” Mr Spearman said.

“His methamphetamine addiction led him to looking for some silver bullet that was going to push away all his financial woes. He became aware the scrap metal yard had awoken to his activities and he was under an increasing level of scrutiny from the yards. He became uncomfortable with that and paranoid with that.

“He then asked Ms Dalrymple to start running copper through the scrap metal yards... in terms of this little enterprise, he was the brains.”

The court heard Balderson had little to no criminal history until 2023 when his offending “went off a cliff” due to the meth habit, according to Mr Spearman.

In total, police charged the father-of-four with stealing 4.2 tonnes of copper and profiting $45,597 from the stolen goods.

Justine Margaret Dalrymple was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for the role she played selling stolen copper to scrap metal yards.

Acting magistrate Raimund Heggie said the act of stealing copper was “unacceptable and intolerable” because of the huge impact it had on community infrastructure.

Balderson was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment.

Partner-in-crime Justine Margaret Dalrymple pleaded guilty to dishonestly gaining a sum of money and possessing copper wire suspected of being tainted property, crimes which police believe occurred between May 2023 and February 2025.

The crimes involved Dalrymple selling 1.6 tonnes of stolen copper to Action Metals for $20,236 profit.

Justine Margaret Dalrymple was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for the role she played selling stolen copper to scrap metal yards.

In February, Action Metals declined to accept a new load of copper from Dalrymple, and shared CCTV of her with police.

Police identified Dalrymple through the CCTV and executed a search warrant on the property she shared with Balderson on February 8, locating nearly 400kg of copper wire in the backyard.

Police also executed a search warrant on a storage unit Dalrymple had in a National Storage Shed yard, where they found approximately 700kg of copper wire.

Dalrymple was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years.

North Queensland has been plagued by copper thieves in recent times - across January and February this year alone police estimated local businesses lost $874,000 replacing stolen copper.

In May, swathes of street lights on the Bruce Hwy near Ayr were plunged into darkness when copper cabling was ripped out of the ground by thieves.

Originally published as ‘Little enterprise’: Luke Raymond Balderson and Justine Margaret Dalrymple sentenced for copper thefts