Shoplifter who stole thousands of dollars worth of bedsheets to sell to a brothel gets community work
A nifty nicker who stole trolleys full of bedsheets from shopping centres to sell to a Moorabbin brothel for cash has escaped jail.
Inner South
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A serial shoplifter who flogged shopping trolleys full of stolen sheets to a brothel has escaped jail.
Entrepreneurial thief Steven Leslie Bjorksten left Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court last Friday with a corrections order, fine and community work.
The Caulfield North 36-year-old admitted stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of high-end linen from shopping centres and then offloading it to a Moorabbin sex den for cash.
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The court heard Bjorksten and a mate stole trolley loads of bedding packs during a two-day shoplifting spree in March last year.
Around the same time he also stole $5000 worth of cosmetics from a Chadstone beauty kiosk, cookware valued at $700 from a Chadstone shop and candles from a car parked at the same centre.
The court heard the cunning criminal and a sidekick started their brazen brothel-fuelling spree on March 8.
Bjorksten and his pilfering pal went to the Knox Lincraft store, filled a trolley with 25 bedsheet sets valued at $2374, and walked out without paying.
They were spotted by customer who contacted staff but by the time police came the thieves had already gone.
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A day later the dodgy duo went to Chadstone Lincraft and again filled a trolley full of linen, took off and stuffed $2000 worth of ill-gotten goods into their car.
Each time their modus operandi was for one of them to distract shop staff while the other wheeled the trolley full of sheets straight out of the door.
Bjorksten was caught after he broke into a car parked at Chadstone on March 29, taking $100 worth of candles but leaving his fingerprints behind.
He told arresting officers he stole because he had no money, and “sold the sheets to a brothel in the Moorabbin area for cash, as his brother had a contact there”.
Bjorksten was given a 12-month community corrections order, must do 100 hours of unpaid work and attend mental health counselling. He was also fined $1000.
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