Brylie Stratton: Coburg Gumtree scammer dragged man from car to steal laptop

A Gumtree scammer with a taste for the finer things in life is lucky her antics didn’t end up causing more serious injuries to her hapless victims.

Gumtree scam artist Brylie Stratton.

A young woman with a penchant for Louis Vuitton and Gucci accessories has targeted several Melburnians selling goods on Gumtree in a violent crime spree.

Posing as a would-be buyer named “Caitlin”, 22-year-old Brylie Stratton would arrange to meet the people seeking to sell their goods before driving off with their goods without paying.

In one violent incident on June 9, Stratton bashed a man in the face with the computer she stole from him as he clung to her stolen car’s window trying to stop her driving away.

After being repeatedly hit with his MacBook Pro, her victim lost his grip.

The man — who she met outside his home in Derrimut — needed surgery on his left foot and stitches above his eye, and spent two days in hospital.

In another brutal attack, on July 30, a man was dragged up to 50m before he fell to the ground as he tried to grab on to an Apple iPhone she had pretended to buy.

The two met at 7.12pm in Little Bourke Street, where she was to buy the phone.

They talked for a few minutes before Stratton took off in her stolen car.

The restaurant manager suffered serious leg and arm injuries and was taken to The Alfred hospital.

Earlier that day, Stratton had raced off in the stolen red Mazda CX5 — with stolen number plates — with a $1400 Apple MacBook Pro laptop ­belonging to a Bulleen man.

Stratton had met him outside his home at 2.15pm.

The serial thief sat in the front seat of her vehicle — checking over the MacBook — for eight minutes before speeding off with it and the charging cord.

Stratton appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last week to plead guilty to more than a dozen charges ­relating to the spree, including car theft, theft, wilfully damaging property, failing to comply with a court order and attempted theft.

She was arrested at a ­Coburg address on August 7. Police found three Louis Vuitton bags, a Louis Vuitton purse, a Gucci purse, an Apple Watch, a Kathmandu jacket and $450 cash.

“I’m not satisfied that you have a proper appreciation of how serious this matter is,” Magistrate Angela Bolger told her. She will be sentenced on April 20. A co-accused, aged 17 at the time of the offences, is on bail awaiting trial.