Wetherill Park: Second man charged after $600,000 worth of Bluey coins allegedly stolen from warehouse
A second man has been charged after allegedly stealing tens of thousands of unreleased limited edition Bluey coins from a warehouse in Sydney’s west.
Fairfield
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A second man has been charged after allegedly stealing tens of thousands of unreleased limited edition Bluey coins from a warehouse in Sydney’s west last month.
Police received a report a large amount of currency had been stolen from the Border Express Warehouse at Wetherill Park on July 12.
Fairfield police arrived and were told 63,000 unreleased limited edition $1 Bluey coins – produced by the Australian Mint – had been stolen.
Following investigations under Strike Force Bandit, a 44-year-old man was arrested at a home in Canley Heights on Tuesday morning.
He was taken to Fairfield Police Station, where he was charged with three counts of aggravated break and enter commit serious indictable offence.
Detectives will allege in court the 44-year-old man worked with another man who worked at the warehouse to steal the coins.
He was refused bail to appear at Fairfield Local Court on Tuesday.
This comes after the 44-year-old’s alleged co-accused, Steven John Neilson, was charged with three counts of breaking and entering to commit a serious indictable offence after detectives located and seized 189 Bluey coins in August.
Neither of the men have entered pleas.
Police allege Nielson broke into the Frank St warehouse on Sunday, June 23 between 12.16am and 1.40am and from 2.45am and 5.42am, and between 11.28am and 1.30am from June 23 to June 24 “in the company of another person”.
Police allege he was an employee at the warehouse where he located and stole the Australian Mint packages from the back of a truck.
Police will further allege Nielson sold the coins online hours after he stole them. They are now being sold online for 10 times their face value.
At Parramatta Local Court on August 7, Magistrate Joy Boulos rejected bail after the court heard of Neilson’s long rap sheet that stretched back to 1997 and included break and entering, larceny, drug possession, possessing housebreaking implements and jail time for drug offences.
“Having read the facts, in my view this is an overwhelming Crown case,’’ Ms Boulos said.
She cited text message exchanges, CCTV footage and told the court two cars including a Toyota RAV4 left the Wetherill Park warehouse.
Investigations under Strike Force Bandit continue.
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