17-year-old charged over dozens of Bendigo home invasions makes bid for bail under new laws

A 17-year-old “prime example” for bail law reform — charged with breaking into homes and stealing cars while on bail — has made another bid for freedom.

A 17-year-old applied for bail after allegedly fleeing police at 135km/h on Wednesday in a car stolen in a Bendigo home invasion.

A 17-year-old accused of a drug-fuelled 12 month crime spree, allegedly breaking into houses, stealing cars and fleeing police in high speed pursuits, has made a bid for bail on the same day new bail laws came into effect to shut down repeat youth offenders.

The teen was refused bail at a Children’s Court charged with hundreds of alleged offences dating back to 2023, including more than a dozen aggravated burglaries in the Bendigo area.

The teen, alongside other known youth offenders, would allegedly gain entry to homes in the early hours of the morning while residents slept, stealing car keys, cash and debit cards before making off with vehicles.

Police allege the teen stole $250 from a car at Kangaroo flat on March 8 while the owner was carrying groceries into his house. Picture: Supplied

Detective Senior Constable Justin Ludeman told the court the teen had allegedly committed “significant offending” and breached “nearly every condition” of the bail he was placed on 12 months ago.

Detective Ludeman said the teen had made no effort to engage with any youth justice services made available to him, instead choosing to continue to allegedly break into homes, steal cars and drive at high speeds while drug affected.

Detective Ludeman said the youth was an “extreme danger” to the community, with police finding multiple videos allegedly posted by the teen and his co-offenders on social media driving at high speeds in stolen cars as an “apparent brag to their friends about their activities”.

Police allege the teen victimised dozens of people in the Bendigo community.

Detective Ludeman said it was “sheer luck” no one had been killed in one of the several high speed police pursuits the teen had been charged over.

On Wednesday March 12 the accused nearly hit a pedestrian at 135km/h on Barnard St while he fled police in a car stolen during a home invasion, the court heard.

“These pursuits are occurring at school times … through school zones,” detective Ludeman told the court.

“The Risk is extreme and the consequences are grave.”

After spending just two weeks in custody, the teen had allegedly told his Indigenous legal service lawyer he now wanted to turn his life around, with his time locked up in Parkville being “a wakeup call for him” and he “does not want this life of crime in and out of jail”.

The teen’s lawyer argued he should be released to live with his mother, despite the prosecution revealing under cross examination that the teen’s mother knew he had allegedly been breaching his bail by reoffending for months and had not reported it to police.

The teen allegedly came face-to-face with a mother holding her three-year-old daughter in her arms during a home invasion.

The teen was also found unsuitable for bail by Youth Justice who told the court under cross examination the teen had not attended school for about 12 months and had not engaged with any supports available to him.

Police said it was disingenuous of the teen to come to court “hat in hand” and promise to comply with his bail, arguing he was only saying what the court wanted to hear to get back out into the community where he would continue to reoffend on bail as he allegedly had been for 12 months.

Police said this was “a prime example” of why bail laws had been changed and the “public has every right to be outraged by the conduct of this young person” who had inflicted “enormous trauma on the community”.

Police said the teen had “time and time again thumbed his nose at the court” and continued to victimise people in the community, arguing the risk was “too great” and he should be remanded.

Magistrate Russell Kelly said the youth had shown “absolutely no compliance whatsoever” with any programs put in place to support him and found him to be an unacceptable risk of reoffending and putting the public at risk, refusing his bail.