Shepparton’s Stephen Bextream pleads guilty in County Court to destroying police car
A Shepparton man’s penchant for nicking vehicles resulted in him ramming a police car and injuring three officers in an attempt to flee arrest.
Goulburn Valley
Don't miss out on the headlines from Goulburn Valley. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Shepparton man who has never held a drivers’ licence wrote off a police car after ramming into it in his attempt to flee a crime spree.
Stephen Bextream, 32, pleaded guilty to the Shepparton County Court on June 3 to more than 30 charges following a crime spree that lasted from November 2022 to January 2023.
The crime spree reached a crescendo on January 12, 2023 when Shepparton detectives planned to arrest Bextream at his Shepparton home.
Four vehicles attempted to intercept Bextream, who drove onto the footpath and rammed a police car, forcing the car to be written off.
Three officers sustained minor injuries in the collision.
Bextream fled, and was seen going 120km/h in a 50km/h zone, before he finally gave up, stopped and was arrested on Gilchrist St.
The crime spree began when Bextream stole a Holden Commodore from a Shepparton address on November 25, 2022.
Bextream and an unknown offender man then stole another vehicle from Murchison on January 3, 2023.
They also stole bank cards, house keys, make up, prescription drugs and a set of car keys from a different Murchison property.
In the plea heard in Shepparton’s Koori Court, Bextream opened up about his difficult childhood.
“I did not have the best childhood,” he told the court, as tears ran down his face.
“I won’t be like my mum, and I won’t be like my dad.”
One of the elders thanked Bextream for sharing his thoughts and said “you have had a traumatic life”.
The elder then told Bextream “you cannot keep going on like this, you won’t be a good father”.
The court heard Bextream was a keen artist and recently sold four paintings at an exhibition.
Bextream will be sentenced by Judge Peter Rozen on Thursday, June 20.
He has spent 509 days in the Melbourne Remand Centre and he will be assessed for a community corrections order.
Insurance companies abandon small businesses amid crime crisis
Small business owners have been left to fend for themselves amid a cost of living crisis and a sharp increase in crime as insurance companies pull back on theft coverage.
Bendigo man charged after alleged car, scooter theft of elderly man
A Bendigo man has been charged after a car and a motorised scooter were allegedly stolen from a 92-year-old man in Echuca last week.