A 23-year-old thief stole cars and used pinched credit cards to buy fast food, petrol and booze
A young panelbeater racked up 63 crimes in a two-month spate of home and vehicle break-ins from Endeavour Hills to Kew. The 23-year-old stole everything from cars to credit cards, with his long list of offences taking 30 minutes to read out in court
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A southeast junk food junkie who stole cars and used pinched credit cards to buy McDonald’s, KFC, petrol and booze has been jailed.
And Liam Magri’s list of misdemeanours was so enormous that police took close to half an hour to read the summary in the Dandenong Magistrates Court.
It comes after the 23-year-old ex-panel beater racked up a whopping 60 plus crimes as he nicked credit cards, cars, cricket gear, tools and number plates on a two month spree between December 10 and February 7 — with more than five of the “unsophisticated” crimes caught on CCTV.
The court heard the thief used cards taken from homes and cars to buy fast food from McDonald’s, KFC and Daniel’s Donuts as well as hundreds of dollars’ worth of petrol, alcohol, cigarettes and shopping vouchers.
Magri’s 63 charges included incidents where he used stolen credit cards to buy goods at East Bentleigh, Moorabbin, Cheltenham, Keysborough, Springvale, Hampton Park, Langwarrin, Karingal, Officer, Scoresby, Berwick and Heathmont.
He also stole cars at Kew, East Bentleigh, Waterways and Heatherton.
Magistrate Tony Burns heard Magri stole a Highett West Cricket Club member’s Toyota HiLux from Peterson St Reserve on December 14 last year and was captured on CCTV taking a punter’s Toyota Corolla from the Sandown Greyhound Club car park on December 17.
And on December 23, he took $500 from an unlocked Range Rover Sport in Brighton East before he was filmed on CCTV pinching a Kia Sorrento in Waterways with $500 worth of cricket gear in the boot.
The prosecution said Magri, who was supported by his mother in court, was spotted “scoping out” houses and trying to open car doors in Waterways on January 9 but police gave up chase when he sped off and veered onto the wrong side of the road.
CCTV also caught the disqualified driver stealing $7465 worth of tools from inside a Holden Colorado parked in an Endeavour Hills street on January 13 before pinching an Audi from Kew two days’ later.
On January 19, Magri and an unknown offender abandoned the stolen Audi at the Casey Central shopping car park before dumping a Mercedes on a Rowville street.
Magri’s piling list of charge sheets also told how he took an iPhone 7 from an unlocked car in Berwick, $1000 worth of gold jewellery from a car in Springvale and bought a case of Coronas from the Grape and Grain liquor shop Moorabbin with a stolen card.
Police later linked Magri to the stolen Audi and Mercedes with DNA — including a can of V energy drink left in the Audi.
Magri was arrested at an address in Oakleigh on February 7 before police found stolen a BMW with fake plates parked nearby as well as a white Toyota full of items believed to be the proceeds of crime including jewellery boxes, media drives, laptops and bottles of wine.
And at the time of his arrest, Magri was in possession of a Giorgio Armani bag taken from a car in Springvale as well as bank cards and five Victorian driver’s licenses.
Magri’s lawyer said his client had recently been diagnosed with a verbal learning disability and was still shaken by the loss of his father and “best friend” from liver cancer.
“But it’s unclear what triggered this offending,” he said.
“It was unsophisticated, simple offending and he accepts all responsibility.”
He said the aspiring mechanic, who had prior drug offences from 2018, also joined a methadone recovery program in custody.
But the prosecution said the summary “spoke for itself” and that the offending had wide ramifications on a number of victims.
Magri pleaded guilty to charges including eight counts of theft of motor vehicle, theft from motor vehicle, drive while disqualified and fail to stop on police direction.
“Your mother is in court — that must be embarrassing — and you certainly don’t honour your father’s memory in custody,” Mr Burns said.
“You don’t want to wake up when you’re 50 and realise you’ve spent half your life in custody.
“You’re mother has already lost her husband … don’t let her lose her son.”
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Magri, who already spent 27 days in custody, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine months, had his license disqualified until February next year and was ordered to pay $7465 back to the owner of the tools.
brittany.goldsmith@news.com.au