Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court: Robert Taylor guilty of burglary, theft, obtaining property by deception, failing to answer bail

A Churchill man who caused havoc for months across Gippsland breaking into homes and stealing anything not nailed down has been pinged for his mountain of crimes.

Robert Taylor — who was in custody for 48 days — faced a string of charges at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court on Monday.

A Latrobe Valley man who went on a wild crime spree hitting towns across the southeastern part of the state, has finally been caught.

Robert Taylor, 29, pleaded guilty at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court on Monday to a string of charges including committing an indictable offence while on bail, obtaining property by deception, failing to answer bail, theft from shop, possessing cannabis, burglary and other charges.

The court heard Taylor broke into a vehicle at a Churchill home and took cards out of a wallet he found at the end of August last year.

Taylor then went to a United Petrol Station in Churchill and purchased cigarettes for $49 on a stolen bank card.

Taylor’s mate, a co-accused, also used the card to purchase Jack Daniel’s drinks valued at $63.

When the pair were caught by police, the co-accused nominated Taylor as the person responsible for the offending, the court heard.

Taylor repeated the offending at a Morwell home in September last year where he stole a wallet out of a car and used a bank card to purchase cigarettes and a taxi ride, valued at a total of $94.

The court heard Taylor gained access to multiple cars across Gippsland and used stolen bank cards. Picture: Supplied

Taylor again repeated the offending, stealing wallets from cars across Churchill and using bank cards on October 26 and November 14 last year.

Police found Taylor in Churchill on November 19 last year, arrested him and found 5g of cannabis in a snap lock bag.

The court heard Taylor made admissions to most of his offending in an interview with police.

On September 29 last year, Taylor was drinking alcohol and went to a woman’s house in Moe.

The woman drove him to Morwell, however Taylor became angry and the two were involved in a crash shortly after.

Taylor threw a Jack Daniel’s bottle at the windscreen causing it to smash and was arrested on November 30.

Taylor used stolen bank cards at stores including BWS, Woolworths, service stations and for a taxi fare. Picture: Supplied

“I cracked the shits and threw the bottle,” Taylor told police at the time.

Taylor also used a stolen card to purchase items from BWS and Woolworths at the Mid Valley Shopping Centre in December last year.

The next day, Taylor purchased cans of Jack Daniel’s from a business in Moe with the stolen card, went to a Bottlemart drive thru and spent $98 on the card.

He also used the card to buy meat at the Mid Valley Shopping Centre.

On January 6 this year, Taylor returned to the shopping centre and stole items from Big W, the court heard.

Police found Taylor shortly after who denied taking any items, although officers found them in his pocket.

He was arrested and taken to the Morwell police station.

Taylor told police he took the items without thinking.

He was also caught driving unlicensed on April 21 this year.

Taylor and a co-accused also entered a locked shed and stole two motorbikes from the property in September this year.

A week later, police went to Taylor’s home and found three stolen iPads and a motorbike.

Taylor also stole another iPad from a car in Churchill, stole a car and dumped it near a Morwell river and stole a man’s work tools worth more than $8000 from his Toyota Hiace and additionally stole an electric bike from the property.

Police searched Taylor’s home and found most of the items he had stole from the victims, including the work tools, the electric bike, fuel cards and bank cards, the court heard.

Taylor made admissions to the offending and told police his mother died in early September, but knew it was no excuse for his behaviour.

The court heard Taylor had been in custody for 48 days.

Magistrate Ann Collins adjourned the hearing to December.