Kaylin Paratene of Bondi skips community service for three years
One day Kaylin Paratene just stopped going to community service. And no one noticed for three years until he bumped into officers outside Hotel Bondi.
Wentworth Courier
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A run in with police outside Hotel Bondi was the undoing of a scaffolder who flew under the radar despite not completing his community service for almost three years.
Kaylin Paratene, 26, of Bondi was sentenced to a Community Corrections Order in 2016 on charges of twice driving while suspended.
On the second occasion in November 2016 he was driving an Isuzu heavy rigid truck with a female passenger when police stopped him on Gadigal Ave, Zetland.
However after completing three quarters of his community service, Mr Paratene abruptly decided to stop going after a series of events sent in him in a “downward mental health spiral” Waverley Local Court heard on Tuesday.
Waverley Local Court heard although Paratene made no attempt to avoid police, it wasn’t until he came to their attention outside Hotel Bondi recently that the breach was discovered.
He was charged with breaching the order and pleaded guilty.
His lawyer Martin Ricci told Magistrate Jacqueline Trad that a “number of matters conspired to derail the whole process” and prevent him from completing the final 26 hours.
The court was told of Mr Paratene’s arrest on an unrelated matter and subsequent 25 hour stint in the cells coupled with the birth of his daughter had sent him into a spin in early 2017.
However, he submitted his client now had his life back on track.
Mr Paratene has held down his job with the same employer for 11 years and he works 50 to 60 hours a week, the court heard.
His partner of six years and mother of his three-year-old daughter supported Mr Paratene, a Rose Bay Secondary College graduate, in court.
Magistrate Trad berated Mr Paratene for “sticking your head in the sand” and said “the next step after community service is a jail sentence”.
“The end was in sight,” Magistrate Trad said.
“But at the end of the day what you needed to do was do something about it.”
He was sentenced to a six month Community Corrections Order without conviction with the only condition being he commit no further offences.