A 45-year-old man used a stolen fuel card to pump more than $4000 worth of fuel in his mother's Holden Commodore, a court has been told.
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Paul Naylor used the stolen card 46 times over a six week period in 2018 at various Ballarat service stations to purchase $4147.27 worth of fuel.
He was captured on CCTV at the service stations filling up the Holden Commodore station wagon, which was registered to his mother, between September 18 and October 25, 2018.
The fuel card had been stolen from a Ballarat business in Gregory Street in September 2018 after unknown offenders jumped a fence, smashed the window of a Holden utility and stole the card.
On Wednesday at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court, Naylor pleaded guilty to 46 deception charges and other charges including car theft, possessing stolen firearms and unlicensed driving.
The chef pleaded guilty via a video link from prison after receiving a sentence indication from the court.
On April 26, 2019, police intercepted Naylor driving a stolen Ford Courier ute in Ararat and discovered he was an unlicensed driver and there was a metal rod made into a mace and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle.
He told police he did not know the vehicle was stolen.
On June 24, Naylor was living with a man in Muckleford when he took the man's white Mitsubishi Triton worth $5000 and never returned. The vehicle was later located with Naylor's backpack inside.
In April 2020, Naylor was living in a caravan at the back of his parents' Alfredton address when a gun safe containing eight firearms was stolen from a Buninyong garage.
The court was told police executed a search warrant at Naylor's Alfredton address and found the stolen gun safe, firearms and cartridge ammunition. Naylor was arrested.
In other offending last year, Naylor was a disqualified driver for four years when police caught him riding a motorbike on Cuthbert's Road, Alfredton, and driving a red Holden Commodore erratically on Learmonth Road, Wendouree.
Defence lawyer Heidi Keighran said Naylor's last sentence of imprisonment was in 2009 and although he had had drug issues in the past, he had completed a drug session and drug screening tests while in prison.
She urged the court to consider a combined sentence of imprisonment and a community corrections order.
Magistrate Letizia Torres said three lots of Naylor's offending occurred while he was on a community corrections order.
"You have involved yourself over a long period of time in anti-social behaviour. I hope you can reflect on the harm you have done to other people," Ms Torres told Naylor.
Naylor was sentenced to five months in prison with 176 days reckoned as already served. His driver's licence was suspended for six months.
He was ordered to pay back the $4147.27 of purchases he made with the stolen fuel card.
Naylor will remain on remand for a sex-related matter.
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