Lionel Combo to stay locked up over months long car theft spree in southeast
One of Melbourne’s most prolific car thieves has been nabbed by cops after a brazen crime spree across the southeastern suburbs.
South East
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A prolific Melbourne thief targeted multiple car dealerships during a wild crime spree — even hitting a dealership directly opposite a police station just one hour after getting out of police custody.
Lionel Combo, 27, fronted the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on March 19 via video link to be sentenced for 29 counts of motor vehicle theft, trespass and more.
In a guilty plea on March 5, the court heard he began his spate of thefts in March last year in Berwick.
In the following months, Combo stole or attempted to steal more than 10 vehicles from car dealerships, Berwick and Narre Warren properties and from petrol stations and drive-through liquor servos while the victims were inside.
Magistrate Andrew Waters said the offending was “serious”.
“It’s brazen, the way you kept going back, in the middle of the night almost exclusively to dealerships,” he said.
“You’ve forced your way through the front door, taking various keys … it’s a lot of offending and quite opportunistic.”
In sentencing, Mr Waters noted Combo’s 37-page list of priors, including time he had previously spent in prison for similar motor vehicle theft and aggravated burglary charges.
“All of your offending is related to your drug use, you have a substance abuse problem that needs to be addressed,” he said.
Referring specifically to one occasion where Combo reoffended “almost immediately” when he broke into a dealership opposite a cop shop just one hour after being released from police custody, Mr Waters said he was taking general and specific deterrence into consideration.
Combo was sentenced with conviction to a total of 16 months in prison, with a 10 month non-parole period.
He was also ordered to pay a $2000 fine.
