Pretty Little Treasures owner Danielle Payne involved in selling stolen clothing at Bentleigh market

The owner of a well-known high-end vintage fashion store in Bentleigh ripped off customers, tried to sell stolen clothes at a nearby market, and a police raid of her house also uncovered more than $50,000 in designer threads.

Pretty Little Treasures in Bentleigh

A former boutique fashion shop owner who specialised in recycled designer goods tried to sell tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen clothing at Bentleigh market.

But Danielle Payne was nabbed by undercover cops, who then raided her McKinnon home and found more than 300 items suspected to have been nicked from shopping centres.

It is unknown what the total value of the dresses, jackets, bags, shoes and jewellery was, but it’s believed to have been over $50,000.

Payne, who used to run Pretty Little Treasures Designer Recycle Boutique in Centre Rd, Bentleigh, also admitted keeping items she had taken on consignment and not refunding their owners.

She pleaded guilty to proceeds of crime and drug charges at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

The court heard the 45-year-old came to the attention of police after customers had given her items to sell at Pretty Little Treasures in 2017.

In February of that year a woman asked Payne to sell her $350 sunglasses on consignment, while another victim asked her to sell around $1000 worth of designer clothes and bags.

But she abruptly shut the shop, and never refunded the money nor the items to either.

Then acting on a tip-off in January 2018 police went to the Bentleigh Sunday market and saw Payne selling racks of designer goods — still with labels and tags — at unbelievably low prices.

She was interviewed and arrested and a search of her house found 324 boutique high-end fashion garments.

She had no evidence of legal possession, and police found a notebook with appointment details relating to various venues including Chadstone.

Police believe the items had been stolen from shopping centres for Payne to then on-sell at the market.

She was also found with small quantities of the drugs ice, ecstasy and cannabis.

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Her defence lawyer said she “occasionally” used drugs and was now caring for her mother after successfully running the shop for many years, but did not offer any explanation as to why she was trying to sell the stolen gear at the market.

Magistrate Charles Tan said Payne had “involved herself in what is serious criminality over a period of time” and he seriously considered jailing her, but accepted she was remorseful.

“(This) involves 324 items of high-end clothing, I would say approximately $50,000 worth, if not more,” Mr Tan said.

Payne was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, must do 250 hours of unpaid work and attend drug counselling. She was also fined $650 for the drug possession charges and must pay back $1350 to the two recycling shop victims.