Gazi Ahmed: Carrum Downs lost dog returned after Frankston theft
A drugged-up fellow did the right thing taking lost pooches back to their owner. But his drug needs took over and he did what junkies do.
South East
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An iced-up dog-loving thief who did a good deed by returning errant hounds to their owner then turned on the canines’ master by stealing from his house.
Gazi Ahmed nicked a computer tablet and a massaging device from the Carrum Downs home after he returned the dogs and realised no one was there.
On another occasion the unemployed Frankston 36-year-old was caught with drugs and cash hidden in his undies and a backpack full of drug paraphernalia.
Ahmed pleaded guilty to theft, trespass, drug possession, weapons and proceeds of crime charges at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The court heard he was walking down a Carrum Downs street on March 5 this year when he came across two loose dogs.
He rung the owner after getting details from their tags and — for a short while — he became a good Samaritan.
But drug-fuelled desire to steal soon took over.
When he returned them to their home no one was inside so the ice addict helped himself to $950 worth of electronic goods.
The owner came back and realised what had happened, and as he had CCTV and Ahmed’s phone number, police soon tracked him down.
Ahmed also admitted being drug-affected in a Seaford street in March with two small bags of ice and $1200 in cash stuffed down his underpants.
With him he had a backpack containing digital scales, smoking pipe and deal bags, and in his pocket were car keys which led police to a parked vehicle with a knife and a baton inside.
His defence lawyer said the quantities of ice found were small and for personal use and the theft was opportunistic.
He said Ahmed only started using drugs recreationally in his 30s, but a toxic relationship and negative peers conspired to turn that into “somewhat of an addiction”.
He said his client now realised he had “gained nothing from drug use, and is losing everything he has”.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said it was “fairly clear the genesis of all this was his drug use”.
“This was a high end example of trespass where someone’s property was stolen from them,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“It was a breach of trust, you had been given licence to enter their home (to return the dogs) and you steal from them.
“Finding comfort in methamphetamine is a fool’s errand.”
Ahmed was jailed for two months, minus 22 days already served, and placed on a 12-month drug-based community corrections order.
