A string of stolen and smashed cars, ransacked homes, an injured puppy, and several fearful victims - including an 82-year-old woman - were all left in the wake of an alleged crime spree, a court has heard.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Ballarat Magistrates' Court this week heard the elderly woman called out, "what are you doing in my house?" to two alleged burglars before she lay frozen in fear as one went through her bedroom drawers nearby.
The accused pair, Morwell teenagers Whyatt Joyce, 19, and Saxon Hodges, 18, are said to have entered her Scotsburn home on October 26, about 3.45am, by cutting flywire on a rumpus room window.
The incident is one in a slew of alleged "high-impact" offending spanning from October 13 until the teens' capture at a Mount Pleasant address on October 28 last year.
In a police prosecution summary that took more than 25 minutes to be read aloud in court at Joyce's bail application on Wednesday, it was alleged the 19-year-old's fingerprint was found inside a Black Rover 75 stolen from Mount Blowhard on October 13.
Another stolen vehicle, a Mitsubishi Triton, is alleged to have been driven by the accused when it was rammed into NewsExpress in Mount Clear on October 22, causing between $5000 to $10,000 in damage.
Sometime between 8pm on October 24 and 12.30am on October 25, the pair are accused of accessing a Toyota HiLux parked at the Mercure in Golden Point and stealing a wallet and other personal items, including keys to the owner's wife's Isuzu MU-X.
Using the keys and the address information they located in the HiLux, Hodges and Joyce are alleged to have stolen the MU-X from an address in Mornington the following day while the woman and her three children were home.
READ MORE:
On October 26, another complainant was sleeping at his home in Bonshaw when he was awoken by the sounds of cars.
The court was told the Bonshaw complainant saw the stolen HiLux and MU-X outside his property, and Joyce with "multiple others" cutting a shed lock.
It was said when the man confronted the group "a scuffle broke out".
On the same day, Hodges and Joyce are accused of using the stolen HiLux to further steal four dirt bikes, totalling $18,500, from a Yuulong Road property in Scotsburn.
A 12-week-old Labrador puppy was caught up in the alleged theft and suffered "significant injuries as a result of the accused and co-accused's actions".
On October 28, the pair were said to have fled an Invermay address after being interrupted by the homeowner as they rummaged through items in the garage.
It is alleged they were armed with an axe, and gained access to the garage after they smashed windows and "ransacked" the complainant's Nissan Navara and Land Rover and found the garage remote.
Magistrate Hugh Radford declined Joyce's application for bail.
"I've come to the strong view on this matter, I can't set any bail conditions that would [mitigate] the risk [of release]," he said.
"I would categorise this offending as brazen in particular in the context of attending in the elderly lady's home and rifling through her drawers while she's in bed.
"That is particularly alarming in the context of risk."
Have you tried The Courier's app? It can be downloaded here.
