Brodie Watts: Frankston Covid-19 worker stole to impress mates
We can’t choose our family, but thankfully for this drongo, he can choose new mates after he was talked into a bumbling crime spree.
South East
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A thief who nicked a speaker from JB Hi-fi and stole petrol from a servo did it because his mates wanted him to, a court has heard.
Brodie Joel Watts took a boom box from the Geelong electronics store in February last year and hid it under his jumper, but as he left the door alarm went off and he was quickly nabbed.
He gave the security guard his licence and ran off with the speaker, though he was easily tracked down.
In June 2019 he stole petrol from a Langwarrin servo after being egged on by his mates sitting in the back of his car.
As he stuck his head out of the window to check the coast was clear he was filmed on the store’s CCTV, making it a cinch for cops to close that case too.
And a couple of days later he was pulled over in Colac in an unregistered car with no L-plates and no licensed passenger in a vehicle with bald tyres.
When he was later arrested he admitted his crimes, saying he stole the speaker because “a mate wanted it” and nicked the fuel after his friend “told me to, so I did it”.
The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to theft and driving charges at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Defence lawyer Anika Waldin said Watts, who was working for the government on a casual basis as a Covid-19 response assistant, was “very susceptible to peer influence”.
She said he was remorseful and “wants to be a more law-abiding citizen in the future”.
Magistrate Dr Michael King said he would need to check Watts’ progress and ordered he come back to court in October for judicial monitoring.
He was convicted, placed on a 15-month community corrections order, and fined $1400.
