Josephine Leigh Raines pleads guilty at Bundaberg, Qld, to break-in

A single mother has faced court over an Anzac weekend break-in which caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to a Childers dental clinic.

A young Bundaberg mother has narrowly avoided jail after causing $24,000 damage to a Childers dental clinic and then trying to claim items stolen from the business had been bought on eBay.

A young Bundaberg mother has narrowly avoided jail after causing $24,000 in damage and theft to a Childers dental clinic and then trying to claim items stolen from the business had been bought on eBay.

Josephine Leigh Raines, 27, faced the region’s District Court in September after pleading guilty to charges of break-and-enter and stealing, fraud, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Published court documents revealed the charges were laid in the wake of Raines offending in Childers which started across the 2022 Anzac Day long weekend.

Raines committed the break-in with the help of two co-offenders.

The court was told the trio broke into the property and caused $24,000 in theft and damage.

Items stolen included 450 glass vials containing anaesthesia medication, dental tools valued at $3000, metal drill bits, dentures, a cash tin containing about $100.

Personal bank details registered to the clinic’s owners, and the passcodes to access them, were also stolen.

Items stolen included 450 glass vials containing anaesthesia medication, dental tools valued at $3000, metal drill bits, dentures, a cash tin containing about $100.

A number of the items linked to the burglary were seized in a raid on one of the co-offenders’ properties on May 3, 2022.

Judge John Allen told the court Raines then engaged in a “persistent course of deliberate dishonesty” by first submitting a false statutory declaration claiming she had purchased the items from eBay “years earlier”, and then using the stolen bank details to transfer $4400 in her own account, before sending it on to one in a co-offender’s name.

The court heard Raines also sent messages to one co-offender “bragging about the break and enter” and giving advice on how to conceal the planning and offending.

Judge Allen accepted Raines had since taken steps to rehabilitate, and was now the mother and primary caregiver of a nine-month-old child.

Raines was sentenced to two years’ jail with immediate release on parole, saying that if were not for her daughter “you would be going to jail today”.

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Originally published as Josephine Leigh Raines pleads guilty at Bundaberg, Qld, to break-in