Cellarbrations Wollert: Dakoda Hart pleads guilty at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court
From a fake triple-0 call to erratic driving and offenders trapped in a roof, it wasn’t a usual night for police when they went to catch two men breaking into a bottle shop in Melbourne’s north.
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Two men were caught breaking into the roof of a bottle shop before their getaway driver put on a show to try to help them escape police, a court has heard.
But their accomplice’s fake triple-0 call and erratic driving didn’t stop police allegedly finding the disguised men and their tools in the roof of the Cellarbrations bottle shop in Wollert.
One of the accused, Dakoda Hart, fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, May 13, having been jailed and denied bail since the crime.
The court heard the 20-year-old was working with two accomplices he met in jail when he attempted the burglary on March 29.
Senior Constable Michael Kaye said a triple-0 call at 3.48am alerted police two men were on the store’s roof, being assisted by someone on the ground wearing a mask.
Police arrived and cordoned off the building, finding metal fence palings had been damaged.
While they were waiting for help to access the roof, a woman repeatedly drove past in a grey Peugeot, revving the engine before driving off erratically.
Sen Constable Kaye said the woman was trying to bait investigators away from the shop so her co-offenders could escape.
About 4.17am, she called triple-0, making a false report that two men wearing balaclavas had walked through the drive through of McDonald’s Wollert carrying guns, in a further attempt to distract police.
She then drove back to the bottle shop, where she was arrested.
The court heard police then got Hart, wearing black gloves, a black face mask and a black baseball cap, and his alleged accomplice from the tin roof, which had been cut with an angle grinder.
In the roof cavity, police allegedly found an iPhone, 1g of methamphetamine, two bags, an angle grinder, crowbar, torch, pliers, screwdriver, rubber gloves and wire cutters.
The court heard methamphetamine and GHB use was an ongoing issue for Hart, who had spent more than six months in jail in the year before his arrest.
His lawyer, Chris Brydon, told the court Hart’s mum had previously told him not to associate with the two co-accused.
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He said Hart would move in and work with his uncle in Eltham upon his release, getting him away from his associates.
The court heard Hart was on a community corrections order at the time of the attempted burglary, and had repeatedly breached orders in the past two years, with the corrections officer recommending he be resentenced on the original crimes.
Magistrate Helen Murphy said despite Hart’s noncompliance with orders, she didn’t want him to be released from jail without one, in order for him to receive drug treatment and monitoring.
Hart pleaded guilty to the attempted burglary and criminal damage after Ms Murphy indicated she would sentence him to three months’ jail, with concurrent prison terms for breaching the corrections orders, including the time he had already served.
She adjourned final sentencing to May 27, once corrections had had time to assess him for a therapeutic order to start on his release.