Jade Mangino jailed for putting emergency workers at risk, thefts, deception

A judge has condemned a “desperate criminal” who rammed a police car and put officers’ lives in danger in a bid to escape the law.

Jade Beau Mangino pleaded guilty in the County Court at Geelong to five counts of theft, four counts of obtain property by deception and three counts aggravated exposing emergency worker to risk by driving. Picture: Supplied.

A judge has condemned a “desperate criminal” who rammed a police car and put officers’ lives in danger in a bid to escape justice.

Jade Beau Mangino, 28, was jailed by Judge Gerard Mullaly in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Tuesday for a maximum of four years and seven months.

He will be eligible for parole after two years and two months, and has already spent 314 days behind bars, reckoned as time served.

Mangino stole a car from Collendina Caravan Park in Ocean Grove in August last year, using a credit card inside the car to make purchases from several service stations in the Geelong area.

About a month later, he was observed in another stolen car, before stealing thousands of dollars of tools from cars parked in a caravan park on Barrabool Rd in Belmont.

Police officers, who had been covertly surveilling Mangino, attempted to apprehend the thief at his Corio home, however, Mangino rammed an unmarked police vehicle and drove through a steel fence, flattening it, in order to escape.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mullaly condemned Mangino’s actions as putting the officers at “dreadful risk”.

“The personal risk officers take to arrest criminals must be acknowledged,” Judge Mullaly said.

“The day-to-day work of police is full enough of uncertain situations,” Judge Mullaly said. “As they undertake their difficult job in trying to bring wrongdoers to justice, they should not be exposed to the high levels of danger of desperate criminals like you, using a stolen car, effectively as a weapon, to ram cars and fences.”

The conduct showed Mangino’s “aggressive persistence” and determination to escape, no matter what it took, Judge Mullaly said.

Mangino’s moral culpability was high, and elevated by a concerning criminal history, the court heard, which included priors in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

“You knew what you were doing was wrong and highly dangerous, but you went ahead regardless,” Judge Mullaly said.

After escaping, Mangino drove up the Princes Highway towards Melbourne before surrendering at the Power St exit.

Judge Mullaly said the tool thefts “caused inconvenience, frustration and an increase to insurance premiums” for the victims.

“It is offending to be denounced and it must be a deterrent,” Judge Mullaly said.

The court heard Mangino suffered from an unstable, chaotic and “unproductive” upbringing.

“Your childhood was far from nurturing,” Judge Mullaly told Mangino, noting it “cannot be ignored”.

The court heard Mangino had abused alcohol for a long time, after being introduced to it as an early-teen by his mother.

He started using ice later in his teenage years, which developed into a long-term issue.

Judge Mullaly told the court expert reports had flagged the risk of Mangino becoming institutionalised, and said his prospects of rehabilitation were “grim, if not bleak”.

However, rehabilitation cannot be simply abandoned as a sentencing purpose, the court heard, as the community would only be protected if Mangino stopped his “dishonest and dangerous behaviours”.

EARLIER: Caravan park crim rammed cop car and flattened fence to escape

A thief who prowled caravan parks to steal tools and vehicles rammed a police car and drove through a fence to escape when he was cornered by officers.

Jade Beau Mangino, 28, appeared in the County Court at Geelong on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to five counts of theft, four counts of obtaining property by deception, three counts of aggravated exposing emergency workers to risk by driving and two summary offences of driving while disqualified.

The charges stemmed from two incidents. In the first, Mangino stole a Mazda wagon from Collendina Caravan Park in Ocean Grove, before spending more than $350 at five service stations with a stolen credit card in the early hours of August 11, last year.

A month later, Mangino was being watched by Victoria Police’s elite State Surveillance Unit when he was seen driving a stolen green Holden ute, nicked from an address in Lovely Banks, with fake plates,

Surveillance team operatives watched Mangino breaking into cars and pilfering $8350 worth of tools and other items from vehicles parked at Tasman Holiday Park on Barrabool Rd.

When he returned home an unmarked police car parked behind him, boxing him in, prompting Mangino to quickly reverse into the front of the police vehicle.

Officers got out and ordered him out of the car, but Mangino instead accelerated, sending the car into 180-turn across the front yard and into the front fence of his property, which did not yield, before ramming the police car a second time.

Mangino then accelerated again, repeatedly driving into the fence until it was flattened and he could drive over it.

Mangino drove up the Princes Highway towards Melbourne, before being arrested and surrendering to police at the Power St exit.

Mangino’s lawyer, barrister Dylan Ioannou-Booth, submitted that while a jail term with a non-parole period was the only appropriate sentence, such a term with a “very lengthy parole period” would be most likely to facilitate the rehabilitation of his client.

The court heard Mangino had a deprived upbringing, being introduced to substance abuse by a family member and both experiencing and witnessing family violence.

Mangino had major depressive disorder with suicidal ideation, the court heard,

Judge Gerard Mullaly said any sentence must ideally be constructed in such a way as to give him hope and ensure he does not become institutionalised.

“The only way forward for him and the community is if he is reformed and rehabilitated,” Judge Mullaly said.

“It’s true he finds the routine easier than being out and homeless and suffering from substance use addictions,” Mr Ioannou-Booth noted.

The court heard Mangino was displaying more insight into his offending than he had previously, such as when he fronted the County Court in 2019 and was sentenced over a violent aggravated burglary in Echuca in 2016, but needed supports in the community.

Mangino had, for the first time, also begun to engage with mental health treatment, Mr Ioannou-Booth said.

The crux of the matter was how to engineer a sentence that both punished Mangino for his crimes, but also enabled his rehabilitation.

The matter was stood down ahead of Mangino being sentenced.

Originally published as Jade Mangino jailed for putting emergency workers at risk, thefts, deception