Carjacker Glen Matthew Cathcart rescued by police Air Wing

A bungling thief who bogged a stolen car trying to flee through dense outer Melbourne bush used a victim’s phone to call police.

Carjacker Glen Cathcart’s escape route through muddy bushland brought him unstuck after a mammoth crime spree spanning Melbourne’s west and outer east.

A Melbourne carjacker’s crime spree came to an end when he bogged his stolen car in bushland and was forced to phone police for help, a court has heard.

Glen Matthew Cathcart, 39, was sentenced by the County Court on November 18 after pleading guilty to charges including carjacking, burglary, theft and assault.

Cathcart’s crime spree kicked off when he tried to steal a man’s car at Tarneit Gardens Shopping Centre on September 14 last year, the court heard.

The owner of the car chased him off, but half an hour later he swiped another car from outside a nearby home, which he took for a joy ride to Melbourne’s outer east.

There, he approached — and on at least two occasions entered — various victims’ homes demanding they hand over the keys to their cars.

He threatened to kill a St Andrews woman and held a knife while menacing a woman in Yarra Glen.

He then entered a Yarra Glen couple’s home as they were watching television and stole the woman’s phone before chasing her husband when he refused to hand over his car keys.

Judge John Carmody told the court 10 people in total were dragged into Cathcart’s manic crime spree.

It only ended after he drove his stolen car into dense bushland and got it bogged, forcing him to use one of his victims’ stolen phones to call police for help.

“Using information from those phone calls, the police Air Wing control were able to locate you in remote bushland,” Judge Carmody told the court.

“In a four-hour period on September 14, 2019, your crime spree … directly impacted on the lives of no less than 10 people who were going about their lives in a lawful and peaceful manner,” Judge Carmody told the court

“They were all law abiding citizens going about their lives quietly when you just tipped their world upside down.,”

The court heard Cathcart had post-traumatic stress disorder and was suffering from an “amphetamine induced psychotic disorder” at the time of his offending.

But Judge Carmody said while he accepted Cathcart was now remorseful for his actions, the offending was serious.

He sentenced him to five years’ and four months’ jail, with a non parole period of three years and four months.