Blacktown: Nicholas Taylor sentenced to jail over multiple theft charges

A young man who swiped a woman’s bank card and a restaurant worker’s car keys, before driving off in their car, has been sentenced. Here’s what we know.

Nicholas Taylor faced Blacktown Local Court on Monday. Picture: NewsWire

A young man who swiped a restaurant worker’s car keys and stole his car, along with a woman’s credit card to buy Maccas and cigarettes, has been sent to jail.

Doonside’s Nicholas Taylor, 20, faced Blacktown Local Court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, larceny, take and drive conveyance without consent of the owner, and driving having never held a licence.

Documents tendered to the court state on December 14 2024, Taylor and two co-accused walked into the Panda Koala Chinese Restaurant in Lalor Park a little after 1pm.

The restaurant where the worker had his jumper stolen by Nicholas Taylor. Picture: Google Maps

The trio were in the restaurant for only a few minutes, leaving after Taylor spotted an employee’s jumper on a far table and stole it.

Inside the jumper was the employee’s car keys, which Taylor used to steal his grey Mazda 3 and drive out of the carpark.

Two days later, Taylor and a different co-accused wandered up a woman’s driveway in Doonside at 4.17am and entered her unlocked car.

The pair stole her wallet, which had her ID and bank cards, and left the scene.

Shortly after, Taylor was spotted at a 7-11 service station in Rooty Hill and used the woman’s bank card to buy a $40 packet of cigarettes.

The pair also wandered over to a McDonalds in Rooty Hill and used the cards twice to buy some food.

Taylor and his co-accused used the woman’s stolen card to buy some food from a nearby Maccas. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

They ended their night by using the woman’s stolen card for an $84 taxi ride.

In court on Monday, Taylor’s lawyer emphasised his client’s struggle with drugs, along with wanting to look after his father.

“He’s very keen to get back to living with his father, he’s very concerned for his father’s health,” his lawyer said.

However, the prosecution raised the issue of letting Taylor out on either a community corrections or intensive corrections order, mainly due to his history of noncompliance.

Magistrate Bree Chisholm agreed, stating she couldn’t “be satisfied that the community will be protected because of your history of noncompliance”.

“For a young man, you have certainly had an opportunity to be familiar with these proceedings and you were subjected to nearly all of the court orders for good behaviour at the time of this offence,” she said.

Taylor was sentenced to seven months imprisonment with a non parole period of three months. He will be eligible for parole on March 20.