Whittlesea: Anthony Ghobril hides $100k of stolen goods for ice
Police raided a Whittlesea business manager’s home and found a haul of stolen construction equipment, vehicles and power tools. It turned out the man was being paid with ice for hiding the loot. And that’s not all he was in trouble for.
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A Whittlesea business manager hid more than $100,000 worth of stolen goods at his parents’ home in return for the drug ice.
Police found stolen vehicles and heavy construction equipment when they raided Anthony Ghobril’s family’s 16ha property, bringing an end to his ice-fuelled crime spree.
The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to all the charges against him at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday, March 7, having been held in custody since October 4.
The court heard police discovered a $60,000 forklift, a Toyota LandCruiser, a $17,000 trailer, $10,000 excavator, a ute, more than $28,000 of power tools and number plates, all stolen from across the state when they raided the property.
Ghobril, who was living on the property in a house separate to his parents, was hoarding the items for associates in return for supplies of ice, the court heard.
He was an elite mountain bike rider before he befriended the wrong people and got hooked on ice six years earlier, Ghobril’s lawyer, Mr Cameron, told the court.
The court heard Ghobril had been in and out of prison since becoming an addict, and while in prison in 2018, had used wet toilet paper to cover a CCTV camera, which Mr Cameron, described as “sheer juvenile behaviour”.
The court heard the RSPCA volunteer also broke into a man’s Wollert property on March 13, 2018, where he came across an injured horse.
He then threatened to inflict serious injury on the man and refused to get off his land.
Ghobril pleaded guilty to a series of other offences before the court on March 7, including repeatedly stealing petrol and driving offences.
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Mr Cameron said while Ghobril was a drug addict with a real problem, he had managed to continue acting as the managing director of the recycled timber business he founded up until his arrest.
Magistrate Stephen Ballek said Ghobril’s offending was serious, arguably more serious than actually stealing the expensive items.
“Handlers provide the opportunity for people to steal,” he said.
“That’s why it’s got a serious penalty.”
But he decided the 154 days Ghobril had already served in prison were enough, convicting him and ordering he undertake a 12-month community correction order and pay a $300 fine.
Mr Ballek said if Ghobril had not pleaded guilty he would have handed him a 12-month jail sentence with a six-month non-parole period.