Ashlee Gribble pleads guilty to theft in Ballarat Magistrates’ Court

A young mum-to-be who smashed up a car with a metal pole while in a drug-fuelled rage has been given a second chance.

Ashlee Gribble, 21, pleaded guilty to several charges including theft in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court.

A Ballarat woman who used a pole to smash the windscreen of a car with its owner inside, before exchanging $150 of meth for a stolen other car has been warned she won’t get off lightly next time.

Ashlee Gribble, then aged 19, followed the victim back to a Redan address on October 3 2018, after a dispute before subjecting him to an attack.

Gribble kicked and punched the man’s car before grabbing a pole from the back of his ute and smashing the rear windscreen.

A couple of months later, in mid-December Gribble exchanged half a gram of meth worth $150 for a Mitsubishi Lancer that had been stolen from an Alfredton home, which she crashed days later in Sebastopol.

In a police interview, Gribble said she believed she was under the influence of meth at the time.

Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt fined Gribble, now 21, $1000 in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court without a conviction and took into account she no longer used drugs and hadn’t committed a crime in more than 18 months.

“To knowingly exchange drugs for a vehicle you knew to be stolen was a very bad idea and involves significant criminality … that’s the sort of thing that could lead to a jail term easily,” he said.

“Don’t come back to court for this sort of offending and expect to escape a conviction …. I don’t want to see you around here again.”

Gribble pleaded guilty to several charges including theft.

The court heard Gribble had obtained employment and was working in a cafe and was now expecting a child with her partner.

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