Tasha Berthelot, David Thomas Ribeiro, Timothy Irwin face Heidelberg court
A ‘p---d off’ tradie, a convicted car thief, and the manager of ‘Melbourne’s best’ pizza shop joined a shoplifting mum at Heidelberg court.
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A ‘p---ed off’ tradie, a convicted car thief, and the manager of ‘Melbourne’s best’ pizza shop joined a shoplifting mum at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court.
See the latest list of sentences handed down for offences occurring in suburbs including Northcote, Mernda, Preston, Brunswick, and Epping.
Mum banned from Kmart after shoplifting spree
Mother-of-two Tasha Berthelot was banned from her local Kmart and Target stores after a midweek shopping spree in which she stole more than $500 worth of items including food and baby clothes.
The court heard Berthelot, 32, visited four stores at Northland Shopping Centre on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, loading trolleys with clothing, toiletries, drinks and food items, then passing through the check-outs having only paid for a small selection of the goods.
The former Craigieburn Secondary College student used the same method involving trolley dividers to conceal stolen items as she exited each store.
At Coles and Woolworths, she stole more than $200 worth of meat.
At Kmart, she stole eight clothing items with a combined value of $98.
At Target, she paid for two gift bags, but walked out with $256 in stolen clothing including pyjamas and Disney-themed baby onesies.
The total value of the thefts was $565.65.
In court this week, she pleaded guilty to four charges.
Her lawyer argued her behaviour was out of character and the result of “experimenting” with prescribed medication.
He explained Berthelot had “bad mental health struggles” and “pain issues” for which she saw a doctor weekly, and that doctor had in the lead up to the offending changed the dose of a prescribed antipsychotic.
“The problem was on the day, she had been prescribed Seroquel and they were experimenting with the doses,” the lawyer said.
“It was the playing with the medication — she wasn’t quite ‘there’.”
The defence described Berthelot as a devoted mother who abstained from drugs and alcohol and who had held a variety of jobs since leaving school in Year 11 including cleaning, managing a BP store, and a mechanic apprenticeship.
The court heard she received a pension as the carer for her disabled brother, and also supported her mother who was battling cancer.
As a result of the thefts, Kmart and Target banned her from their stores, which was “very embarrassing,” the lawyer said.
The magistrate acknowledged Berthelot was “on quite a large cocktail of medications” at the time of the offending and that all of the stolen items had since been recovered.
The magistrate further acknowledged that lack of access to Kmart and Target would make it “hard to shop for small children”.
The sentence was a 12-month good behaviour bond with a requirement to continue medical treatment.
No convictions were recorded.
Fight with the ‘missus’ costs concreter his licence
P-plater David Thomas Ribeiro was “p---ed off” after a fight with his girlfriend when police caught him exceeding the speed limit by more than 70km/h on a suburban street.
The court heard Ribeiro’s car was clocked doing 128km/h in a 50km/h zone on Waterview Drive at Mernda about 11.50pm on January 5, 2022.
The 21-year-old’s explanation to officers at the time was that he had “just had a fight with (his) missus and was just p---ed off”.
In court this week, he pleaded guilty as charged and reiterated that he was “not in a good mood” at the time of the offence.
“I was just upset,” he said.
“And yeah, it was stupid but it happened.”
The court heard Ribeiro lived rent-free with his parents and earned $1500 a week working as a concreter.
His car was impounded after the offence and he paid about $800 to get it back, and later sold it.
The magistrate acknowledged the young man’s lack of prior convictions but explained a one-year licence suspension was the mandatory minimum penalty for speeding that was “so objectively dangerous”.
On top of the one-year licence loss, Ribeiro was ordered to pay a $1000 fine.
No convictions were recorded.
Convicted car thief back on the road
Timothy Irwin successfully applied to get his driver's licence back after serving time in jail for stealing a car.
The court heard Irwin’s licence was cancelled and disqualified for two months when he was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the theft of a motor vehicle.
Irwin confirmed he had been released from custody in July and was living at Doreen “just looking for work”.
The magistrate granted Irwin’s licence eligibility application and commented that it was “unusual” to hear such applications from people convicted of offences other than drug-driving.
The police prosecutor confirmed police had no concerns about Irwin being relicensed, but said the requirement to apply through the court was “probably because of his priors”.
Animal-lover breaks law to save stuck horse
Disability pensioner Deborah Jane Sinclair was coming to the rescue of a distressed horse when police busted her driving in Northcote while subject to a licence disqualification.
The court heard the 66-year-old was intercepted while driving a white Caprice on Westgarth St about noon on March 11, 2019, and told police she thought the disqualification period had ended.
Facing court this week on crutches after a hip-replacement, she pleaded guilty as charged but said she “certainly wouldn’t have been driving had (she) known” she was just days away from completing the three-month disqualification imposed in December 2018.
She said her reason for driving that day was to visit her horses on a property at Wallan.
“I was rather keen to get up there — one of them was stuck in the dam,” she said.
The magistrate noted Sinclair had an “appalling” driving history and “must have been to jail numerous times for driving [offences]”.
The magistrate accepted Sinclair’s offending had decreased “dramatically” in recent years, and taking into account her physical condition, elected to impose a $500 fine instead of sending her to jail.
Sinclair said her past driving offences had been “mostly minor” but conceded it had taken her “a long time to learn”.
Pizza queen won’t be making any deliveries
Reservoir pizza shop manager Nadine Kanjo fronted court for doing a school run without a valid driver’s licence.
The court heard police intercepted Kanjo on Greenview Court, Epping about 9am on March 3, 2022 and found she was subject to a demerit point licence suspension that had come into force the previous day.
The mother-of-four told officers at the time she was driving home from Epping Views Primary School and didn’t know her licence was suspended as she hadn’t been notified.
In court this week, she pleaded guilty as charged, but her lawyer argued she was of the “honest belief she was entitled to drive” at the time of the offence as she “didn’t receive any letter” about the six-month suspension.
The lawyer said Kanjo had since refrained from driving, and this affected her parental duties as well as her work as a disability support worker and managing the family business, Crown Pizza and Ribs.
The lawyer told the court the business served “the best pizzas in Melbourne”.
The magistrate noted Kanjo had a relevant prior conviction from 2012.
She was ordered to pay a $500 fine, with no conviction recorded.
kid needed knife to ‘feel safe’
Former heroin addict Kyle McKenzie blamed a troubled childhood for his tendency to carry a weapon whenever he left the house.
The court heard McKenzie was walking on Power St, Preston, on the morning of September 3, 2021, when police found a black foldable pocket knife concealed in his clothing.
Officers stopped McKenzie because he was not wearing a face mask, contravening the then-enforceable Covid-19 mask mandate.
He had no excuse for that offence, but regarding the knife told officers he had it with him for “self-protection”.
“I don’t feel safe leaving home without it,” he stated at the time.
In court this week, he pleaded guilty to possessing a controlled weapon.
His lawyer’s explanation for the offending and prior criminal convictions was “emotional grief” resulting from a “very, very difficult” upbringing.
“His dad was in jail and his mum had issues with drugs.” the lawyer said.
The lawyer said McKenzie previously “had a heroin problem” but had not used the drug for five years and had been off methadone for two years.
He had recently found work with a carpet company and had stopped carrying knives in public since becoming more aware of the dangers.
“He’s been keeping out of trouble and very much regrets having the knife on him — he’s not doing that anymore,” the lawyer said.
The magistrate sentenced McKenzie to pay a $400 fine and forfeit the knife to be destroyed.
Taxi driver flees Brunswick Beemer crash
Taxi driver Vikram Jaini will pay a high price for fleeing a Brunswick crash that left a shopfront and a luxury car badly damaged.
The court heard Jaini’s taxi crashed into a parked BMW and caused a shop awning to collapse on Glenlyon Rd just before 1am on September 20, 2021.
By the time police arrived, Jaini had fled without taking any action to address the damage.
Both the taxi and the BMW had to be towed from the scene, before Jaini had his lawyer contact police to explain what happened.
He pleaded guilty to two charges.
His lawyer told the court the incident had a significant financial impact on Jaini as “insurance didn’t cover him” and he had paid full restitution for the BMW repairs out of his own pocket, as well as paying to complete a road trauma awareness course.
The lawyer downplayed the seriousness of the crash, emphasising that it happened “at the peak of (Covid-19) lockdown” and “the roads were empty”.
The magistrate noted Jaini had prior criminal convictions and traffic priors.
But her honour accepted Jaini’s driver’s licence was “crucial to (his) livelihood” and that he was “otherwise of good character”.
The sentence was a $1000 fine, with no conviction recorded.
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