Phillip Blake jailed for Shoalhaven break and enters

A Nowra criminal broke into the same property three nights in a row, reporting for parole just hours later wearing the same shorts he had on in CCTV recovered from the victim’s home.

Trying to avoid detection, a Nowra thief thought he had succeeded in removing the memory of CCTV from his victim’s property, only to have the police come knocking with a search warrant days later.

Phillip Blake was high on ice when he decided to drive his Holden Commodore without a licence to Budgong, west of Nowra on April 28, 2021.

It was here, he parked his car on a fire trail and walked to a nearby property, uncliping the gate and walking to a shed.

Unlocked, he rolled the shed door up and began sifting through its contents. Taking a Suzuki Vitara, and a number of power tools before driving the Suzuki back to his Holden, Blake moved the tools between the cars and drove to a friends North Nowra property.

A few hours later, the 37-year-old reported for parole in Nowra.

Phillip Blake was sentenced in Nowra Local Court on Friday.

But, the temptation to find what else he could steal was too much, and Blake returned the next night with friends to take a quad bike and $20,000 in collectable coins.

Third time lucky, he returned again on May 1 and stole a registered Winchester .22 calibre single shot rifle and an air rifle, using a tyre iron he found in the victim’s garage to wrench open the locked and secure gun safe they were stored in.

While he was there, he broke into ransacked a locked five bedroom home on the property, taking watches and jewellery.

Blake also attempted to remove the CCTV hard drive from the ceiling of the home to avoid detection. But, when the homeowners returned on May 2 and reported the robbery to police, officers realised the criminal got away with just the security system’s router, not the stored vision capturing his movements.

Police tracked Blake down on May 4, arresting him and charging him with break and enter house steal, driving without a licence, and two counts of aggravated break and enter.

Blake made full admissions about the theft to police, telling them the guns were hidden in the bush on the Burma Fire Trail, near the scene of the crime.

He was remanded in custody, and entered pleas of guilty to all charges in Nowra Local Court.

Officers investigating the crime attended the Nowra parole office, to observe vision of Blake attending in the same shorts he was wearing in CCTV taken inside the Budgong home.

Blake’s lawyer Rohan Harrison argued for his release from South Coast Correction Centre to attend an Oolong House rehabilitation program.

“I would submit he not be able to leave that institution on his own except for the purpose of attending court, not to take alcohol or drugs unless prescribed … be of good behaviour, and not try to contact, go near, or try to go near any witness,” he suggested.

Magistrate Lisa Viney said: “It is unfair to your client to delay the inevitable”.

Mr Harrison told the court his client had a traumatic brain injury, and wanted to “get himself better”.

In denying his release, Magistrate Viney said while he is not able to leave, Oolong House was not considered a locked down facility.

“There is a real risk of further offending,” she said.

Blake was sentenced to a total of 2 years in jail for his crimes, with a non parole period of 12 months. He’ll be eligible for parole in May next year.

Most of the stolen items were recovered by police, including the guns.