Rockhampton meth addict Conan John Belbin jailed for thefts, stolen car

A drug addict stole ‘just over $11,000 worth of property from the community in less than six months’, a court heard. Read more about his crimes here.

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A methamphetamines addict who stole more than $11,000 of items and a Door Dash delivery driver’s vehicle during a drop off claims he “returned to his old habits” after a relationship break up.

Conan John Belbin, 36, stole $1134 of meat, a generator worth $2200 and golf equipment worth $5400 during a six month crime spree.

Police prosecutor Mirren Smith said Belbin stole “just over $11,000 worth of property from the community in less than six months”.

She said police only sought restitution of $1167.

Prosecutor Smith said Belbin’s 15-page criminal record was “quite horrendous”, filled with offending similar to that before the court on September 20.

“He has received some considerable amounts periods of imprisonment for it,” she said.

Belbin was on parole at the time after being sentenced to 15 months prison in November for break and enter and released to parole in December.

This offending started two months later when he stole groceries from Foodworks at Kawana on April 16, 2024, and eight days later, stole groceries from IGA at Frenchville.

Belbin went on to commit an enter premises offence on April 24 where he stole $1134 meat from a cold room, along with chocolate bars and razor blades from the premises.

He also stole a welder from Mitre 10, petrol from Ampol in Frenchville and stole a toolbox from another premise during the months of May, July and August.

Magistrate Grace Kahlert said the stealing of the Door Dash delivery driver’s vehicle while he was delivering food would have had a “significant impact” on him as he “was simply trying to make a living”.

She said the golf equipment was stolen from someone’s car.

Defence lawyer Stephanie Smith said her client’s father died by suicide when Belbin was four years old, both of his parents were alcoholics and he had a “very disrupted and disadvantaged childhood”, turning to drugs at age 13 as a coping mechanism.

She said Belbin is a father himself but is not involved in his children’s lives as they have a male role model to look up to and “he doesn’t want to interfere with that”.

Ms Smith said Belbin lost a former partner after she, her daughter and grandmother were killed in a car accident which he says “ultimately broke him”.

She said he has been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety and is willing to go to a rehabilitation facility to address his drug addiction.

Ms Smith said Belbin was “king hit” by an inmate while remanded at Townsville Correctional Centre in 2014 and spent about 10 weeks in hospital after suffering a bleed to the left side of his brain.

She said her client instructed the trigger for this offending was a relationship break-up and he “returned to his old habits… turned back to drugs to cope”.

Ms Smith said he has been reading while incarcerated and now recognises “just how much hurt he has been doing to not only himself, but also his family and the community”.

She said Belbin had previously worked as a freelance artist and aspires to take that back up when released into the community.

He had been returned to prison on August 14 after his parole was cancelled.

Belbin pleaded guilty to five counts of enter premises and commit an indictable offence.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing along with one count each of stealing after a previous conviction, possessing tainted property, enter dwelling with intent, attempted enter premises and commit indictable offence, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, breach of bail and fail to appear in court.

Ms Kahlert sentenced him to 18 months prison with immediate parole eligibility.

Originally published as Rockhampton meth addict Conan John Belbin jailed for thefts, stolen car