A SEBASTOPOL man who fled from police during a search warrant, only to be found by the air wing and dog squad hiding in a shed, faces significant jail time.
Bradley Wilkinson, 35, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to seven charges including handling stolen goods.
The court heard police found a trailer full of stolen car parts at the Bonshaw Drive address and a bowl of cannabis under Wilkinson’s bed during the search on May 11.
Earlier that month Wilkinson, who was unlicensed at the time, was charged with careless driving and dangerous driving while pursued by police.
Wilkinson’s lawyer, Vince Peters, told the court his client was not involved in drugs and only sold parts on Gum Tree to make money to live off.
He said Wilkinson had a “great lack of confidence in life’s flow of where it could take him”, which impacted on how he managed his life.
“He is very down on self esteem … for him that’s the only source of income that he sees in his world,” he said.
With 52 days spent in pre-sentence detention, Mr Peters said sentencing became a question of how his client was going to be managed.
“He needs therapy in one way or another,” he said.
Magistrate Cynthia Toose said she didn’t want to set Wilkinson up to fail by placing him on another community corrections order.
“I can see he had been given a CCO path and that wasn’t successful,” she said.
“The message isn’t getting through.”
Sentencing was adjourned to August 14 while a pre-sentence report can be completed.
