‘You’ve failed’: Pool-builder found with stolen meteorite back in court and back in jail

A meth-smoking pool builder previously convicted after an “extremely rare” stolen $15,000 meteorite was found sitting in his garden has appeared again in court.

Sisters Celilia Boissevain and Ghis Gallo were shocked to hear that Cairns police had recovered the large meteorite that was stolen from their family business, The Crystal Caves, in Atherton five years ago. Picture: Brendan Radke

A meth-smoking pool builder who was previously convicted after being found with a stolen meteorite sitting in his garden has appeared again in court for breaching an Intensive Corrections Order.

Cairns man Joseph William Gertig, 49, was in Cairns Supreme Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to breaching the order after failing to report to authorities throughout November 2023 and 2024.

The order related to his 2021 conviction after the soccer ball-sized 11kg stone was found in his garden.

The historic meteorite, which is believed to be up to five billion years old and valued at $15,000, was stolen from Atherton’s Crystal Caves museum in June 2015 in a midnight raid, just two weeks after it was donated to the business.

The Wolfe Creek meteorite crater was unearthed in Western Australia in 1973 and believed to have originated in an area of space somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.

Mr Gertig was subsequently sentenced for receiving the unusual item, along with possession of methylamphetamines, cannabis and drug utensils.

The extremely rare rock is estimated to be four to five billion years old. Picture: Brendan Radke

It all happened after the police raided Gertig’s Mooroobool home in July 2020, locating him and seven “associates” sitting around a table with 6.31g of ice, with cannabis and glass pipes also found.

While Mr Gertig was in custody on those charges when he was overheard by police talking about “keeping a heavy round thing safe” – this lead police to return to his residence where they found the Wolfe Creek crater.

Mr Gertig claimed to have had it for five years, but was not the one who stole it.

On February 21, 2021, Justice Jim Henry described Mr Gertig’s primarily drug-related criminal history as “verging on hopeless” and handed him a 16-month jail sentence with parole eligibility in July the same year

He returned again to front Justice Henry on Wednesday afternoon who told the man he was disappointed that he had not followed the conditions of an order designed to mitigate the man’s overall jail time.

“I was minded at the time to give you the Intensive Corrections Order … so you would have the support so you so needed. All of that has failed, despite you promising to agree to the order,” Justice Henry said.

He sentenced Mr Gertig to seven days imprisonment and granted him an immediate parole release date.

Mr Gertig, however, will remain in custody where he awaits to be sentenced on other charges since being arrested and detained on April 17.

Originally published as ‘You’ve failed’: Pool-builder found with stolen meteorite back in court and back in jail