Serial sinners: Southeast crooks with amazingly long rap sheets
The saying goes “as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” — it fits these bumbling repeat offenders perfectly.
South East
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Some of these serial sinners have been caught committing crimes dozens of times, others have racked up a rap sheet a lot longer than their arms. Here are some of the biggest frequent flying felons to appear at southeast courts.
OMG, IT’S THE OG
A 26-year-old bloke who calls himself the “original gangster” is trying his best to back it up with hard numbers — 40 pages of priors to be exact.
Jake Carter reckons his crime life is down to a drug spiral due to the stabbing murder of his best mate and a strained relationship with his police officer father.
Shy is one thing he is not, posting a pic on Facebook of him standing on a bonnet of a cop car.
He has priors dating back to when he was 19 involving stalking, drugs, assaults and bail and court order fails.
His defence lawyer said the murder of Carter’s friend had caused him PTSD, and problems with his cop dad was also a factor in his offending.
Carter has struggled since the age of 15 with drugs, starting with cannabis and then progressing on to ice.
The magistrate said he was basically “a non-compliant individual” who “exhibits controlling behaviour” which is amplified by his sustained drug use.
This time he was jailed for 120 days.
HOT MESS
When someone has nearly 500 charges on their rap sheet, there are bound to be a few weird crimes in there.
Like setting fire to a jail bed by using a power point and jam jar lids, or bungling a burglary on a bottle-o by hanging around to swig booze and smoke a ciggie.
Andrew Gary Powell has been in and out of prison many times over the past 20 years, and commits more offences while he’s inside.
The homeless 41-year-old with 485 priors lit up his bedding while he was on remand at Ravenhall Correctional Centre, causing $12,000 in damage and requiring him to be rescued by wardens.
When back on the outside he rode his pushbike to the bottle shop after having a late-night hankering for alcohol.
He tried to break in by using a mallet and screwdriver but had no joy so rode off, but came back a few minutes later with a large rock which he threw through the glass door and climbed inside.
Powell didn’t rush his crime, taking the time to light up a cigarette and knock back a can of booze, but passers-by had heard the commotion and held him until police arrived.
He was jailed for eight months for the prison arson and got four months for his lazy liquor-shop burglary.
UNLUCKY 13
While not yet a career crook this incompetent ice-addled thief had better kick his stupid stealing habits or he risks spending years behind bars.
Judging by his past record Chad Gueco isn’t very good at crime, and was told to sharpen up or learn to live the life of a lag.
In his latest blunder the Berwick 26-year-old was found parked up while drugged up in a car with two completely different stolen plates on it.
Officers then discovered 13 nicked mobile phones, ice, cannabis, nicked bank cheques and for some reason he was also in possession of a police station stamp.
He told officers he “found” the number plates and admitted the drugs were his, but “couldn’t say” where the phones came from.
He said the stamp and stolen cheques belonged to “a friend”, whose name he had conveniently forgotten.
Gueco was released after serving 47 days on remand and told to do an 18-month community corrections order with drug and mental health treatment conditions.
‘GET A JOB’
A prolific thief with a 74-page rap sheet says he steals to buy ciggies and drugs because his $100 weekly allowance isn’t enough to live on.
But the magistrate was having none of it, telling him there were other options – such as working for a living.
Kieran Walker had been in and out of prison for near continuous theft-related offending dating back a decade.
The 28-year-old was back in court pleading guilty to another 40 crimes he committed just weeks after being released from custody.
He prowled southeast streets in the early hours looking to steal items from cars, using nicked bank cards to pay for cigarettes, bourbon and cans of coke, as well as fund taxi rides.
He said he had “a daily cannabis habit”, which required him to steal to fund.
His defence lawyer said Walker, who has long standing drug problems, a low IQ and mental health issues, was honest with police and, in his own mind, had a good reason to steal.
The magistrate said she hadn’t seen this level of offending, or someone with a 74-page criminal history, for some time.
“You say you haven’t got enough money — that’s because you spend it on drugs,” she said.
“Have you ever thought of getting a job?”
Walker said he was trying to get work and had a mate who could “help him out”.
He was remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.
JAIL, DRUGS, CRIME, JAIL
A thief who spent nearly six years in prison for robbing a schoolgirl at knifepoint embarked on another stealing spree just months after his release.
Bradley Robert Croughan was caught by cops hiding in a cupboard after a one-man crime wave busting into businesses left, right and centre.
The 34-year-old broke into a Frankston laundromat and stole cash and keys, went to a nearby car wash and stole water pumps and hoses and then took cash, tools and a safe from a neighbouring business before breaking into a clothing store and nicking $500 from a till.
His defence lawyer said it wasn’t long after he was released he “fell back into the drug scene” because he had no supports in place.
The magistrate said he needed to “break the chain” of jail, drugs, crime, jail.
“You have spent a huge amount of time in custody in your life,” he said.
“You have lost a lot of your 20s and teenage years.”
He gave Croughan a time-served jail sentence and imposed a corrections order with drug treatment and support.
DODGY DRAPE DISASTER
Reasons for thieving are many and wide for career crooks like Joseph Andrew Nicastro, but they don’t get much weirder than this.
The Berwick 43-year-old with a 67-page rap sheet reckoned he should treat his wife to some new curtains.
Problem was he didn’t want to buy them, or even nick them from a shop.
Instead he stole three sets from someone’s house he happened to be walking past.
It is a marvel he knows anything about window coverings at all since he has spent most of the last two decades looking out at the world through prison bars.
His defence lawyer said Nicastro was “on a merry-go-round” of offending, jail, release and reoffending, but was now serious in wanting to fight his heroin and ice drug problems.
The magistrate said 67 pages of criminal history was “getting up there”.
“Burglary of soft furnishings, that’s a new one,” he said.
“Here he is again, at the age of 43, offending in the same pattern.”
Nicastro was given another four months inside.
