House-sitting thief pawned dead dad’s toy cars for drug money

House-sitter from hell: A mate had let his drug-addled pal stay at his Dandenong home as a favour, but the dodgy guest paid him back with a very low act.

Generic photo: A thief stole sentimental car models like these from a home where he was house-sitting and sold them for drug money.

A house-sitter from hell nicked sentimental model cars belonging to a dead dad and then pawned them for drug money, a court has heard.

Cameron Dingey was trusted to look after a Dandenong property but instead of caring for the home he rifled through stuff and found a box of collectibles that had belonged to the deceased father.

He then flogged off the model memorabilia merchandise to a pawn shop and used the cash for ice.

The 33-year-old also ripped off another housemate, stealing his computer and X-Box and hocking them to feed his drug habit.

Dingey pleaded guilty to a series of theft-related charges at the online Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

The court heard he had been house-sitting for a few days at a Dandenong home in November 2019.

When the owner returned they noticed a box with items belonging to their deceased father had been tampered with and several model cars stolen.

Pawn receipts were found which showed Dingey had used his Queensland driving licence and his Centrelink card as ID to exchange them for cash.

The victim has now managed to get the cars back from the pawn shop.

Between February and April 2019 Dingey was staying at a Mooroolbark house.

When he left in April it was discovered an X-Box and an Apple computer were missing.

Tickets were again found showing the thief had also hocked them for cash.

Dingey is in prison doing a three-year-and-seven-month stretch after being sentenced by the County Court late last year.

He struck a man with a spirit level and held a gun to his head in an armed home invasion and stole items from a house where he had been couch surfing, nicking a computer, a camera, a games console and a car and selling them cheap to buy drugs.

His defence lawyer said “drugs were an issue” for Dingey, who had moved from Queensland to Morwell a couple of years ago.

Magistrate Julie O’Donnell said these offences predated the County Court crimes and should have been rolled up into them.

She said his previous priors dated back to 2007, and she wouldn’t interfere with his current non-parole period of two years and three months.

Dingey was instead convicted and fined $1500.