The bizarre criminal acts in Penrith and the Blue Mountains
A woman who went on pinched $200 worth of cosmetics and clothes from Target is just one of the strange court cases to make you scratch your head.
Penrith
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Penrith court is one of the busiest in the city, and you’re bound to get a few matters through that make you question what the person was thinking.
Penrith court is one of the busiest in the city, and you’re bound to get a few matters through that make you question what the person was thinking.
Here’s a list of some of the strangest cases we’ve covered over the past two years.
MITCHELL LANCETT
Mitchell Lancett, 31, was arrested shortly after a fire at the Emu Plains Thai Square on November 14, 2019, but it was his offending at Lapstone railway station that can be described as truly bizarre.
Lancett defecated on the train platform, wiped it with a jumper, threw a leather jacket off an overpass at a passing train, and threw a large rock at a glass door no less than 11 times.
He also stole items from Bunnings, and stole two Prada handbags in Sydney’s CBD.
Lancett originally denied setting the fire at Thai Square, but pleaded guilty to all charges in early 2020.
He is currently serving a three-year jail sentence.
DARYL ROCHESTER
Daryl Rochester, 39, got so drunk midway through 2019 that he decided to pick a fight at the Masjid Islamic Prayer Centre in North St Marys.
The big problem for him was he targeted a group of children.
According to police, Rochester forced his way through the back gate of the Masjid Islamic Prayer Centre on Glossop St, North St Marys, at 8pm on June 3, 2019.
Once inside, Rochester attempted to instigate a fight with some children that were playing in the carpark.
He was later denied entry to the building by the adults who linked arms to form a barrier, and started assaulting a metal pole on the veranda before he was removed from the premises.
Rochester pleaded guilty to behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order in January, 2020.
IMRAAN ABRAHAMS
Imraan Abrahams, 34, went on a shopping spree of almost $12,000 at several Bunnings Warehouses in the Penrith and Campbelltown area with a card that wasn’t his.
Abrahams found a Bunnings card that belonged to the company he worked on about a week before Christmas 2018, and decided to treat himself.
He purchased $11,854 worth of lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, and tools from several Bunnings stores over the next two days, and stashed them at his Blair Athol home.
Abrahams then made a brazen bid to increase the $20,000 limit on the card by impersonating another employee in an email.
He also tried to pawn some of the items at pawn stores in western Sydney.
Abrahams was sentenced to a 13-month intensive corrections order in November, 2019, and was fined $1800 after pleading guilty to 20 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception, two counts of receiving or disposin stolen property, two counts of giving false information to a licensee, and one count of publishing false material to obtain an advantage.
MATTHEW TOMS
Matthew Toms found himself in hot water in 2019 when he was caught filming an underage girl in the changing rooms of a popular clothing store.
The Willmot man entered a cubicle next to a 15-year-old girl at Cotton On at Westfield Penrith on September 22, 2019, and positioned his phone to record video of the girl.
The girl later told police she noticed the phone while in a state of undress, saw herself in the frame of the camera, and saw the red square indicating the phone was recording.
She quickly got dressed and told her mother who went to inform staff. While she was doing that, the victim returned to Toms’s cubicle, kicked his door and said “f*** off, stop recording me”.
Toms remained in his cubicle for another five or six minutes before returning his T-shirt to a staff member.
He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in October last year on one charge of intentionally record an intimate image without consent.
DIONE BLISSETT
Dione Blissett, 42, spent almost six months keeping clients furniture and personal items hostage while working as a removalist.
The East Kurrajong man would demand more money from the victims, sometimes almost double the original quote.
He was found guilty of five counts of larceny as a bailee in the Local Court, and had an appeal in the District Court thrown out late last year.
He is serving an 18-month prison sentence.
DANIEL TANNER
Blaxland man Daniel Tanner was approached by police during a court appearance in March last year who advised him they’d be searching his home for illegal weapons.
Tanner didn’t give police a key, and once they left, he rang a mate and asked him to hide some weapons for him.
Tanner asked the man to get a taser from beside his bed and a BB gun and to throw them on the roof.
His friend was stopped a short distance from Tanner’s home and had his phone confiscated by police.
He pleaded guilty to possessing an unregistered firearm, possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit, and having a firearm on his property while subject to a firearms prohibition order.
He is now serving a two-year jail sentence.
SUSAN HALL
Susan Hall’s case is one of the more bizarre matters that has passed through Penrith Local Court in the past couple of years.
The 57-year-old pleaded not guilty, but was found guilty of obscene exposure and common assault in September last year.
She was found to have flashed a young family at St Marys police station, causing a verbal disagreement between them.
Hall then approached the family and poured some type of liquid over the couple’s two-year-old daughter.
She maintained that she attempted to splash a flavoured mineral water on the father, whereas the child’s mother said she splashed some type of alcoholic beverage on her.
Hall was given a 12-month conditional release order and fined $300.
KEIRA BATES
Young South Windsor mum Keira Bates stole almost $200 worth of clothes and makeup from a Penrith department store, but it was her reasoning in court that sees her on this list.
Bates was at the Target at Westfield Penrith on July 17 last year when she started loading items into a bag without paying for them at the self-serve checkout.
She was stopped by a loss-prevention officer who took her to a back room and confiscated the stolen items.
She told police at the time she was “in a rush” and had lost track of what had been scanned, and told a magistrate in court she was “highly dosed on Panadeine Forte” at the time of offending.
Bates pleaded guilty and was convicted of larceny and fined $500.
ROBERT STEADMAN
Robert Steadman stole a gold pendant worth almost $15,000 from a Penrith jewellery store, yet claimed to have no memory of the offending despite being caught on CCTV.
The 34-year-old from Blackett entered Starco Jewellers on February 8 and pinched the 18-carat white gold pendant with 1.83 carat diamonds from a display case just after 3pm.
He then stayed in the store and spoke to the owner for almost 10 minutes before leaving with the pendant in his left pocket.
Steadman agreed he was on CCTV and pleaded guilty to a charge of larceny, but claimed he was drunk at the time.
However, a magistrate said Steadman was too calculated in his offending to accept that claim.
He was sentenced to a 12-month jail term.
MATTHEW PLOEG
Matthew Ploeg, 26, was the focus of a rooftop standoff with police on Penrith’s High Street in June last year.
The Cranebrook man broke into Nepean Pizza, Kebabs and Charcoal on June 21 before escaping onto the roof.
Police found him hiding behind a pillar, and attempt to negotiate with him for an hour while he walked across the rooftops.
He eventually threw a crowbar and a mobile phone onto the road, and was later tackled and arrested by police.
Ploeg pleaded guilty to destroy property and breaking out, destroy or damage property, resisting an officer, possessing housebreaking implements, and having custody of a knife in a public place, and was sent to the drug court last August.
JESSE HAWKESWOOD
Medlow Bath man Jesse Hawkeswood was high on meth and under the influence of alcohol when he terrorised an elderly woman in her own home in April, 2019.
The 39-year-old chef demanded $30,000 from the woman, tied her up with duct tape, threatened to kill her family, and made stabbing motions towards her during the terrifying ordeal.
The woman eventually escaped and barricaded herself in a bedroom before telling friends about the ordeal the next morning.
Hawkeswood told a court he had been on a “three-day bender” before the offence.
He pleaded guilty to take and detain a person with intent to commit an indictable offence and common assault, and was sentenced to two years and four months in jail.
ROY HAINES
Cambridge Park man Roy Haines wasn’t happy with his late-night Maccas order, and he certainly made it known to staff.
The 29-year-old went through the drive-through of the High St McDonald’s in Penrith on June 14 last year, but was unhappy with the quality of the food.
He then entered the store and demanded a new meal, describing it as “chat”, before being enraged that he didn’t receive a drink despite not ordering one.
He also threatened to bash the young store manager, calling him a “white piece of s***” and a “fat c***”.
He was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and banned from going within 100 metres of the McDonald’s after pleading guilty to stalk or intimidate with intent to cause fear.
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