A WOMAN burgled five Bendigo homes and stole goods worth more than $22,000 to fund her ice addiction, a court has heard.
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Melissa MacLeod, 41, pleaded guilty at Bendigo Magistrates Court on Thursday to 13 charges including three counts of burglary, four counts of theft and three driving charges.
During the first burglary, at a Quarry Hill home between February 1 and 11 this year, MacLeod waited outside the house while a co-accused jemmied open a window, climbed inside and handed her a large quantity of goods.
The pair then loaded the goods - including electrical appliances, musical equipment and antique crockery worth more than $16,000 - into a car and drove away.
Between February 15 and 16, the pair targeted two Kennington homes, stealing cash, power tools, gardening equipment and alcohol.
About a week later MacLeod stole a tandem trailer worth about $2500 from another Kennington home and drove it to her house where it was later found by police.
In the early hours of the following morning, the pair stole more electrical equipment from a Strathdale home.
Defence lawyer Bob Cameron told the court his client had developed an addiction to methamphetamine following a series of relationship problems and had turned to crime to feed her drug habit.
But he said the mother-of-two had stopped using ice since the incidents and was trying to rebuild her life.
The court heard MacLeod had several prior convictions for dishonesty charges from 2010 and 2011.
Magistrate Jennifer Tregent said MacLeod's life had seemingly spiraled out of control and resulted in her "invading the sanctity of people's homes".
"It's a credit to her that she's off the ice, (but) so many burgs and thefts...requires your client to do some work for the community," she told Mr Cameron.
Ms Tregent sentenced MacLeod to a 12-month community corrections order requiring 120 hours of unpaid work.