Thief films himself stealing, burning cars

Joshua Hope, 24, appeared remotely from custody at a hearing at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to a spree of offending between November 2022 and January 2023.

The offences included theft, dangerous driving whilst being pursued by police, arson, failing to stop on police direction and handling stolen goods, among others.

The earliest offending occurred in Bendigo on December 21, 2022, in the car park of the Fitzpatrick's Home Timber and Hardware.

At about 10.30pm, police officers spotted Hope parked in his Holden Commodore station wagon alongside another male, with false Western Australia registration plates.

The pair got out of their cars and were looking at items in Hope's boot under torch light.

Police approached Hope with lights on and Hope got into his car to leave the area.

He drove to the northern side of the car park, a dead end, and then turned around a drove towards police.

The officers had to reverse their vehicle as Hope swerved around them, driving out onto nearby Stafford Street and then illegally onto Eaglehawk Road.

The decision was made not to pursue Hope, with police staying behind to question the man he was dealing with.

They were provided with messages between the pair regarding the sale of catalytic converters.

Catalytic converters are attached to cars to reduce exhaust emissions, and are often stolen for the rare metals inside, which are salvaged.

Police searched a Carisbrook address on January 3, 2023, and seized a phone belonging to Hope's partner.

On the phone, police found footage from December 11, 2022, of Hope setting a stolen Ford Focus on fire.

Other videos on the phone depicted Hope setting a stolen Holden Commodore ute on fire, which was stolen from a rural property in Talbot on the same night.

The burnt out Commodore was found the morning after in the Creswick State Forest.

Later that day police also searched Hope's Trawalla address, and seized two phones belonging to him.

On the phones police found further footage showing Hope cutting the catalytic converter from a Mitsubishi Triton, stolen from a Daylesford address.

Police also found several items tying Hope to the thefts and arsons, including two angle grinders, taillights belonging to the stolen Triton, three 20L plastic fuel containers, a reciprocal saw and a Mitsubishi catalytic converter.

Hope was on parole at the time of the thefts, the court was told.

At Tuesday's hearing, Hope's lawyer told the court her client had a stable childhood and family life, but fell into drug use at an early age.

Hope had a relevant criminal history, and recently had been sentenced to prison by the County Court for earlier unrelated offending.

The lawyer said Hope had also pleaded guilty to the offending at an early opportunity.

Magistrate Michelle Hodgson said she had to consider Hope's rehabilitation in sentencing as he was a young offender, at the age of 24.

Magistrate Hodgson however said Hope's history did not work in his favour.

"They are serious offences, at the time that you committed these offences you were on parole for a very serious offence that would appear to be of a similar nature - particularly in relation to the driving and dishonesty matters," the magistrate said.

"Objectively it is really serious offending, in relation to a number of these charges the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment."

Magistrate Hodgson said Hope's prison sentence would be moderated by totality considerations - looking to not impose too crushing of a sentence on top of the time he is already serving.

"Whilst you are still a young offender and I must put an emphasis on your rehabilitation... your rehabilitation can really only start to commence when you take responsibility for your conduct when you are offending," the magistrate said.

"Taking cars and burning them is just a very significant matter... it is really wanton destruction of valuable items belonging to other people.

"Your attitude to court orders and to the law really has to change. You need to develop that insight before I have a lot of confidence that we wont be seeing you again."

Hope was sentenced to a four-month prison sentence, on top of the sentence he received for breaching parole.

He will also have his driver's licence disqualified for 12 months.