Recidivist offender narrowly avoids jail time for trailer theft

The 32-year-old was already subject to a suspended jail sentence when he helped another man steal a $7500 trailer from a Toowoomba company’s yard.

The man pleaded guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court to his role in the theft of a $7500 trailer.

A TOOWOOMBA man with a history of offending narrowly avoided actual jail time after he pleaded guilty to his role in the theft of a $7500 trailer.

Daniel McNicol Schneider, 32, was sentenced to eight months in jail but Magistrate Graham Lee ordered he be released immediately on parole.

The Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard Toowoomba Trailers in Torrington had taken possession of a brand new $7500 trailer which was parked against the perimeter fence of the company’s yard on May 15.

On May 20, the yard’s CCTV cameras recorded a black Mitsubishi Triton arriving and the passenger getting out and cutting a hole in the 2m wire perimeter fence.

The two men had then attached the trailer to the Triton and drove away, police prosecutor Sergeant Natalie Bugden told the court.

Police inquiries had led to the Triton’s owner on May 22 and Schneider had been interviewed on May 28 and made full admissions to his role.

The trailer had not been found, Sgt Bugden said.

He pleaded guilty to that burglary as well as to an unrelated charge of leaving the Burke & Wills Hotel on November 23 without paying for the $149 mini bar bill.

His solicitor Brad Skuse said alcohol and drugs had played a part in his client’s life but he was now working for the first time in three years and was trying to stay away from drugs.

His client instructed the Triton’s owner had approached him to help with the theft of the trailer and Schneider had not received any benefit from it, he said.

Magistrate Lee ordered Schneider pay half compensation of $3750 for the trailer and fined him $300 and to pay $149 restitution for the Burke & Wills offence.