Barrie Prendergast avoids jail after failed burg at Ferntree Gully Orthodontics

A father who allegedly used an axe to try to break into an Upper Ferntree Gully orthodontics clinic while he was high on ice has avoided a jail term despite his ‘extensive criminal history’ and ‘very high risk of reoffending’.

Prendergast allegedly used a hatchet to try to break into the orthodontics clinic.

A “persistent offender” who allegedly used an axe to try to break into an Upper Ferntree Gully orthodontics clinic while he was high on ice has avoided a jail term despite his “very high risk of reoffending”.

Barrie Prendergast was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, including 200 hours of unpaid community work, judicial monitoring and drug rehabilitation, when he went before the County Court for the 2016 crime.

The 35-year-old had pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and possessing a controlled weapon without a lawful excuse on June 11, before a jury acquitted him of four charges of theft and an arson charge on June 21.

Prendergast pleaded guilty to trying to break into Ferntree Gully Orthodontics.

The court heard sometime between 4-9pm on November 20, 2016 Prendergast broke into a storage shed containing patients’ records at the back of Ferntree Orthodontics, before he forced a flywire screen off a window of the clinic and “used an implement” to damage the window frame.

“The implement” was argued to be the small hatchet with a fold-in knife in the handle found on Prendergast when he was arrested.

The court heard when Prendergast told police he was “off (his) head’ on ice at the time” of the attempted break-in when they interviewed him.

Prendergast was held in custody for three days for the offending before he was bailed, but has since served 14 months behind bars for three other offences, including for theft in June 2018, the court heard.

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When sentencing Prendergast on June 25, Judge John Carmody spoke of the man’s “extensive criminal history”, which made for a 38-page report and included 23 separate court appearances between 2003 and 2016.

“You are a persistent offender who shows definite signs of being a very slow learner,” Judge Carmody said.

“You have consistently and persistently offended to pay for your drug habit.”

But the court heard Prendergast had “kept out of trouble” for the past 12 months and was due to become a father to his second child next month.

Judge Carmody said Prendergast had been assessed as being suitable for a community corrections order, despite being regarded as at a “very high risk of reoffending”.

He was handed three days’ imprisonment for unlawfully carrying a controlled weapon, which he already served after his arrest in 2016.

“You have got to ‘man up’, so to speak,” Judge Carmody told the offender as he left the court.