Moorabbin Court: Raylene Brady, Ishai Gozlam and Nitin Malik front court
A woman who attempted to steal two bottles of alcohol from Costco has blamed the Covid lockdowns for her sticky fingers, and all the rest from court.
South East
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A whisky thief, a dangerous driver and a probationary driver caught driving without a P-plate have all fronted a court in Melbourne’s southeast.
Raylene Brady
A woman has fronted Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court over the theft of two bottles of alcohol in the middle of first Covid lockdown.
Raylene Brady, 50, pleaded guilty to theft on May 2, after being caught stealing a bottle of Monkey Shoulder Whisky and a bottle of Hendricks Gin from a Costco outlet.
The court heard a staff member had witnessed Brady take the two bottles off the shelf on July 7 in 2020, before continuing down the aisle.
The court heard that when Brady entered the next aisle, the two bottles were nowhere to be seen.
As a result, Brady was asked to show the contents of her handbag when she was checking out, the court was told.
The court heard that upon looking inside her bag, the attending staff member discovered the two bottles inside.
The court heard Brady was escorted to a staffroom to wait for police to arrive.
Brady had previously contacted her husband while shopping for him to transfer her money for the purchase, but he had not yet responded by the time she was at the checkout, the court was told.
Brady said she was remorseful over the incident.
“I’m embarrassed and ashamed,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever stolen anything before, and I’ve certainly never stolen anything since.”
Brady told the court the stress of the lockdown had caused her lapse in judgment.
“It was the middle of Covid,” she said.
“I was concerned about not being able to make the purchase.”
Magistrate Ian McGrane considered the severity of the crime in his sentence.
“The goods were recovered and the business didn’t suffer from any losses as a result,” he said.
“Dishonesty is terrible, but it’s not the greatest crime in the world.”
Mr McGrane sentenced Brady without conviction, to pay a fine of $250.
Nitin Malik
A Clayton man has fronted Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court after he caused an accident that left him hospitalised.
Nitin Malik pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to stop at a stop sign on May 2, after colliding with a HiLux in December last year.
The court heard Malik had received significant injuries, causing him to be hospitalised and concussed, while the HiLux driver remained uninjured.
Malik had told police he had no recollection of the accident when he was interviewed, the court heard.
Malik repeated the same story to Magistrate McGrane on Tuesday.
“I lost my memory, I don’t remember anything about it,” he said.
“I went to the hospital with pain to my entire body and face. I think my head hit the steering wheel in the collision.”
Mr McGrane said regardless of Malik’s memory, he had “pleaded guilty”.
“It’s unclear precisely how you went through the stop sign, but you’ve admitted to it, therefore you were driving in a careless manner,” he said.
“It’s important people obey the road rules when they’re driving because if they don’t people can get hurt.”
Mr McGrane used Malik’s accident as an example of this.
“In your case, you suffered injuries as a result of your own careless, dangerous driving,” he said.
“It was fortunately nobody else was injured”
Mr McGrane fined Malik $600 with conviction, and cancelled his license for three months.
“If you want to be relicensed, you’ll have to undergo a safe drivers program,” Mr McGrane added.
Ishai Gozlam
A man caught driving without a visible P-plate has fronted Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court.
Ishai Gozlam pleaded guilty to driving without a visible P-plate on May 2, after the reverse plate fell off during a journey through Elsternwick.
The court heard police saw Gozlam travelling on Glenhuntly Rd in December last year, without the mandatory probationary plate.
Officers stopped Gozlam and questioned him over the plate’s absence, before giving him an infringement notice, the court heard.
Gozlam told the court he had dropped a friend off prior to being intercepted by police.
“I had just dropped my friend at home, and when I took his things out of the boot, the plate must have fallen,” he said.
“I explained the circumstances, and found the plate in the boot of the car on the night. The officer’s fined me because I didn’t have the suction-caps to reattach the plate to my rear window.”
Gozlam told the court he later found the suction-cups, also in the boot of the car.
“The basic premise of why I got the fine was because I didn’t have the means to keep the plate up.”
Mr McGrane sentenced Gozlam to a fine of $50 without a conviction.
“I’m not convicting you Mr Gozlam, but it’s your responsibility to ensure you’re complying with the road rules at all times,” Mr McGrane said.
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