Coles thefts: Dingley’s Mark Pathe steals cash from registers, robs Sunglass Hut
A man has managed to steal more than $14,000 cash from Coles stores across Melbourne in a very unusual way. He also got away with $7000 of sunglasses from Sunglass Hut.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A man has admitted stealing more than $14,000 cash from Coles stores across Melbourne by hacking into unattended cash registers during open hours.
Mark James Pathe, of Dingley, also stole $7000 worth of sunglasses from a Sunglass Hut store, committing all the thefts by using a small tool to force open the locks, Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court heard, where he pleaded guilty on June 17.
The court heard Pathe stole from Coles stores 12 times in the space of less than a month — between April 19 and May 10 — then hit a Woolworths store.
Constable Lauren Wilson said Pathe targeted out of service cash registers, crawling under the counter or leaning over the counter to access the tills.
She said Pathe was caught on CCTV cameras using an implement that looked like a key to open the tills before he took large amounts of cash, as much as $3019 on one occasion.
Pathe often committed the thefts in the middle of the day, and several times managed to steal from more than one cash register.
The court heard Coles believed he had stolen a total of $14,173 from the company’s stores in Brimbank, Braybrook, Reservoir, Keysborough, Keilor Downs, Taylors Hill, Prahran, the CBD, Endeavour Hills and Melton South.
The court heard he also stole $285 from Woolworths Chadstone on the night of May 13 using the same method.
Magistrate Michael McNamara said it was rather “unusual offending to waltz into Coles and put your hand in the back of the till”.
Constable Wilson said Pathe had used a similar method when he was caught on CCTV stealing about $7000 of sunglasses from the Westfield Plenty Valley Sunglass Hut store on January 4.
Pathe was arrested when police found him at Keysborough’s Parkmore Shopping Centre on May 14.
MORE: OPENPAY IDENTITY SCAM NETS MAN $8K OF BUNNINGS GOODS
CHILDREN LIVING IN ALLEGED CROP HOUSE
HOW PETROL THIEF KEPT GETTING AWAY WITH IT
Constable Wilson said police reported finding Pathe in a car heating up heroin on a spoon, with his five-month-old child in the back of the vehicle, and two small bags of rocklike substances also in the car.
The court heard Pathe, an indigenous man, was a longtime heroin addict with a lengthy criminal history of similar offending.
His lawyer said the thefts occurred after he relapsed into drug use and was financially pressured by a reduction in his work hours.
Having spent 34 days in jail, on Wednesday, June 18, Mr McNamara sentenced Pathe to the time he had served and put him on a two-year corrections order, including 150 hours of community work.