List of Mackay, Whitsundays tradies guilty of crimes exposed
From a Mackay fire technician double dipping with workplace earnings to a Whitsunday carpenter abusing hospital staff helping him, these are 14 tradies who fell foul of the law.
Police & Courts
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From a Mackay fire technician double dipping with workplace earnings, to a Whitsunday carpenter abusing hospital staff while they were attending an injury, some of the region’s tradies have been busy outside of work. Here are some of Mackay and Whitsunday’s worst behaved tradies.
Thomas Bezuidenhout
A Mackay man caught out “double dipping” at work avoided going to jail after a magistrate found there were “exceptional features” to the case.
Thomas Bezuidenhout was working as a full-time fire technician for Chubb Fire and Safety Pty Ltd when he began what was meant to be a side hustle on his days off.
Mackay Magistrates Court heard he registered a business under his own name and began working for Moranbah North Mine.
Soon the 38 year old was invoicing for jobs he had completed during his work hours.
The court heard the jobs he completed for Moranbah North Mine should have gone through his employer.
Instead, he invoiced them directly, earning an extra $27,024.50 over 10 months.
Bezuidenhout pleaded guilty to fraud – dishonest application of property of another by an employee, between September 2019 and July 2020.
He was jailed for two years, wholly suspended for five years, and ordered to pay the $27,024.50 immediately.
A conviction was recorded.
Zayne Ryan Borg
An apprentice boilermaker drunkenly assaulted a police officer as he was evicted from a popular Mackay pub.
Zayne Ryan Borg had been at a work function at the Shamrock Hotel in Mackay when police were called and he was told to leave.
Rather than complying he became rude.
Mackay Magistrates Court heard Borg stood on a table and told police, “I’ll leave whatever way I f***ing want to c***”.
When he was arrested Borg resisted by grabbing a Constable’s vest, as well as pinching an officer hard on the hand.
He then kicked an officer in the back with both feet.
He pleaded guilty to assaulting police inside a licensed premises while drunk and obstructing police on February 28, 2020.
Borg was banned from any licensed premises in the Mackay CBD for six months, and was ordered to perform 100 hours of unpaid community service within 12 months.
Anthony Andrew Thompson
A Mackay boilermaker found with vile videos of child abuse argued it was an “experimental incident”.
Police raided 34-year-old Anthony Andrew Thompson’s Mackay home in August 2019, discovering 17 files on his laptop and one on a USB containing child abuse videos.
Mackay District Court heard the horrific videos included little girls forced to engage in sex acts on their own and with others.
Thompson pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material.
He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended immediately with the operation of the order to continue for two years.
A conviction was recorded.
Gary Kramme
A Whitsunday carpenter groped and abused hospital staff as they tried to help him after a messy night out.
Gary Kramme touched several Proserpine Hospital nurses on the buttocks and face without their consent and called one a “f***ing c**t” as they tried to treat an injury to his hand in the early hours of the morning on June 5, 2021.
A 30-year-old female staff member contacted police, who attended and searched Kramme about 4.45am, finding MDMA in his possession.
He said he ended up in hospital after severing his thumb, but could not remember how it happened or what type of alcohol he had been drinking that night.
He pleaded guilty to conduct causing a public nuisance and possessing dangerous drugs.
Kramme was fined $500 and no convictions were recorded.
Deon Wesley Ryan
A Mackay-based tradesman was caught drink-driving while he was in Moranbah for work.
Police intercepted Deon Wesley Ryan, 39, about 9.30pm on January 28, 2021, after he was seen driving out of the Black Nugget Hotel car park.
He took part in a random-breath test and later returned a blood alcohol concentration of 0.137 per cent while on a P2 driver’s licence.
Ryan pleaded guilty at Moranbah Magistrates Court on March 11, 2021, to driving while over the middle alcohol limit.
He was fined $900 and his licence was suspended for four months.
Paul Mathew Mackenzie
A Mackay tradie was called ‘creepy’ after he was caught playing with his own equipment on an old flame’s bed while at her home to check the smoke alarms.
The property manager tasked Paul Mathew Mackenzie to the South Mackay home.
But unbeknown to Mackenzie, the victim had left her doorbell camera charging on her bedside table.
Mackay Magistrate Court heard the work order had accidentally been sent to a different email address so when she received a notification that someone was at her front door on August 28, 2020, she was confused.
“Opening the notification, she observed a male who she recognised … pleasuring himself on her bed,” prosecutor Robert Beamish said.
The 38-year-old electrician was initially charged with burglary, which was downgraded to trespassing to which he pleaded guilty.
Mackenzie was ordered to complete 12 months probation on March 24, 2021.
A conviction was not recorded.
Dayne James O‘Keefe
In a desperate move to prove his worth, a father swindled three Mackay businesses out of more than $24,500 during a shady spending spree.
Dayne James O’Keefe, 30, cheated Snap Tools Mackay out of $15,519 in tools.
The tradie also went to Mackay Kawasaki and claimed a motorcycle and kid’s quad bike worth $6800, and a $2230 trailer from Mackay Trailers.
He said it was a misguided attempt to step up for his family after breaking up with his partner.
O’Keefe pleaded guilty to fraud, and was sentenced to 18 months jail, with 15 months suspended for two years.
Darrian Joshua Fox
Police stopped the bobcat operator for a drug test on Fifth Ave, Scottsville, about 2.40pm on April 28.
Darrian Joshua Fox told police he had used marijuana the week prior, with tests showing a positive reading of the drug in his saliva.
He pleaded guilty to driving while a relevant drug is present in blood or saliva while on a provisional licence.
Fox was fined $400 and his licence was disqualified for three months.
A conviction was recorded.
Andrew David Gowanlock
A Mackay electrician was stopped for a breath test in Bowen after drinking at a friend’s place at Horseshoe Bay.
Andrew David Gowanlock was stopped for a breath test on Herbert Street about 12.45am on May 22, 2021.
He told police he had consumed eight XXXX Golds before getting behind the wheel to “drop a mate’s girlfriend home”.
He returned a 0.141 BAC reading.
Gowanlock pleaded guilty to driving while over the middle alcohol limit, and was fined $950 and suspended from driving for 10 months.
He was granted a C Class licence to continue his work as an electrician, and a conviction was recorded.
Sean Matthew Cutler
A successful north Queensland businessman lived a double life as a drug trafficker, peddling $25 million in drugs and avoiding detection for 10 years by burying cash and drugs on his neighbours’ farms.
From the outside Sean Matthew Cutler was a local success story: a highly-regarded businessman who had built up a strong concreting business, making generous contributions to the Mackay community.
But another story emerged at Brisbane Supreme Court in 2020 when it was revealed the 43 year old was a key player in a multimillion-dollar trafficking syndicate that bought $25 million worth of amphetamine, ice and marijuana between 2008 and 2018.
His defence team asked for special leniency because Cutler had admitted trafficking for 10 years, despite police only being aware of a six-month trafficking window.
Cutler was sentenced to nine years‘ jail for drug trafficking and will be eligible for parole in 2024.
Angelo Jerome Purcell
A young Mackay man spent his 26th birthday fronting Mackay Supreme Court where he was jailed over someone else’s drugs found in someone else’s car.
Why? Because he knew the methylamphetamine was in the vehicle he was driving, he even moved the stash to a different spot.
In doing so he, in a legal sense, took possession of the drugs – and because of the amount found himself in the supreme court on an aggravated charge.
Angelo Jerome Purcell traded vehicles with his workmate, who wanted to borrow his ute.
He found 7.003 grams of ice in the centre console that he moved to the sunglasses hutch.
When police stopped the vehicle at 9pm on January 30, 2020 officers seized the stash.
Purcell pleaded guilty to aggravated possession of a schedule one drug, which has a maximum penalty of 25 years jail – or 20 years if the court finds the person charged is drug dependant.
He was jailed for 12 months with immediate parole.
A conviction was recorded.
Jake Gordon Knight
A bushie had his hopes of getting a gun licence dashed after a magistrate recorded a criminal conviction for driving behaviour that put other road users at risk.
Jake Gordon Knight was barely two months into a 3.5-year driving ban when he evaded police while driving disqualified at 137kmh in a 90kmh zone on Mackay Eungella Road.
It was 8.19pm on March 19, 2021 when Knight’s ute sped past a police crew, which switched on lights and sirens, however the 24-year-old boilermaker overtook another vehicle and turned off the ute’s lights.
Knight pleaded guilty to evade police, high-range speeding and disqualified driving.
He was fined $9137.50 and disqualified from driving for another two years, which will not begin until July 2024.
Convictions were recorded.
Craig Raymond Phillips
A skinny dipper caught with his pants down at Airlie Beach Lagoon punch a security guard in the face multiple times when he was caught.
The guard suffered bruising and swelling around his eye as a result of the punches.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Emma Myors said when the security asked a naked Craig Raymond Phillips to leave in the early hours of the morning in March 2020, he charged at the guard.
Phillips pleaded guilty to one count of committing a public nuisance within a licensed premises or in the vicinity of a licensed premises.
Phillips was ordered to perform 40 hours of unpaid community service and the conviction was recorded.
Isaac Matthew Panochini
A Jubilee Pocket man threatened to chop a woman‘s children into pieces and hang them from the clothesline in a vile text message.
Later that day, Isaac Matthew Panochini went to the woman‘s house with a sledge hammer while only her 16-year-old daughter was home, forcing the teen to make a frightened call to her mum.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Emma Myors said in August Panochini sent the threatening text message to a 35-year-old mother of three, telling her to give a mate his money or “I‘ll be hanging your kids on your clothesline cut up into pieces”.
Panochini appeared at Proserpine Magistrates Court via videolink from police custody and pleaded guilty to multiple charges including using a carriage service to make a threat to cause serious harm, common assault and wilful damage.
Panochini was sentenced to nine months‘ jail and was immediately released on parole.
He was also placed on a $500 good behaviour bond for a year.
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