Cranbourne crook paid burglars in bags of ice instead of cash to commit commercial burglaries
A man wanted on warrants was seen acting suspiciously in a Berwick pub carpark and arrested. But when cops went to his Cranbourne home they were amazed to find an Aladdin’s Cave of stolen goods.
South East
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A ‘fence’ who received stolen cars, motorbikes, trailers and power tools from a series of commercial burglaries paid the thieves in drugs instead of cash, a court has heard.
Rodney Charles Rogers ‘bought’ with bags of ice dozens of items of nicked gear worth tens of thousands of dollars that had been taken from several southeast commercial sites.
He was also nabbed with a sawn-off shotgun in his Cranbourne bedroom and had more than 5g of meth, digital scales, deal bags and a debt book in his kitchen.
The 48-year-old pleaded guilty to more than 20 theft, burglary, drug, weapons and stolen goods charges at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The court heard Rogers had been wanted on warrants when he was caught in a parked car in Zagame’s in Berwick on May 29 this year.
After he was arrested police went to check his property and found stolen vehicles and stacks and stacks of tools including leaf blowers, radios and generators.
They items had been taken in several burglaries from commercial premises in the Mornington Peninsula and from a motorcycle hobby group’s headquarters in Koo Wee Rup.
Some items had Casey Council engraved on them and other goods had been nicked from St Peter’s College in Cranbourne.
Rogers told officers he paid people in ice to commit burglaries and bring the stolen gear back to him.
The court heard he has 13 pages of priors and had been jailed before for his crimes.
Rogers’ defence lawyer said while he wasn’t directly involved in most of the burglaries he did “play a supporting role” by possessing the stolen goods.
He said substance abuse was a major factor in his offending as he was “a fairly heavy methamphetamine user” and he associated with other ice addicts.
He said the disability support pensioner, who had a serious workplace accident in 2010, had already spent 47 days on remand.
Magistrate Timothy Gattuso said “imprisonment was called for” as there were a large number of charges and the offences of trafficking drugs, possessing a shotgun and receiving stolen goods were serious.
“He’s been operating as a fence for some particularly serious burglaries,” Mr Gattuso said.
Rogers will be sentenced on July 29.
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