Third looter jailed for plundering bushfire-ravaged NSW south coast store
A third person has been convicted of plundering the same NSW south coast store repeatedly ransacked by desperate drug-fuelled looters during this year’s devastating bushfire emergency.
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A third person has been convicted of plundering the same NSW south coast store repeatedly ransacked by desperate drug-fuelled looters during this year’s devastating bushfire emergency.
Police caught Jeremy Holman with a $5000 haul of stolen mobile phones plundered from the electrical shop in Batemans Bay in January.
He was charged one day after desperate drug-fuelled looter Leon Elton and his girlfriend Kylie Pobjie were nabbed for twice ransacking the same Betta Electrical store which went up in flames on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.
They admitted to plundering MacBook laptops, mobile phones and drones worth more than $20,000.
Unemployed Surf Beach man Holman, 27, was sentenced to 18 months in prison with a non-parole period of six months at Batemans Bay Local Court this week, after pleading guilty to larceny and entering a building with the intention of committing an indictable offence
In February the lovers were handed the same sentence with all three eligible for parole in July.
On the night of the robbery, 38-year-old plumber Elton from Tilba Tilba and mother of four Pobjie, 31, drove several hours in a white commodore van from Narooma to buy drugs in Batemans Bay.
Instead they trudged through bushland and broke through a temporary fence around the store which was burnt after the fires tore through the town.
They stuffed plastic bags full of equipment and loaded the car driven by Holman back to Pobjie’s home.
Pobjie pleaded guilty to two counts of larceny, two counts of entering a building with the intention of committing an indictable offence and two counts of disposing stolen property.
The court has heard the part-time cleaner and her boyfriend both have histories of drug abuse and mental health issues.
Elton pleaded guilty to two counts of entering a building with the intention of committing an indictable offence, two counts of larceny and two counts of disposing property worth $5,000 and possessing ice.
It comes as a 37-year-old man has been accused of breaking into abandoned houses and stealing property in the Malua Bay area south of Batemans Bay, which was also devastated by the hellish New Year’s Eve blazes.
Police allegedly raided Troy Nye’s Mogo property and uncovered a gel blaster, gel blaster ammunition, cannabis, a baton-shaped Taser, electronic goods and homemade mace.