A MAN posed for a photograph in the Bendigo Advertiser at last year’s Community Christmas Lunch before stealing bingo tickets from the All Seasons Hotel gaming area.
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Simon McDonald, 44, of Strathdale, pleaded guilty to 11 charges in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Friday, including the theft from All Seasons Hotel during the free Christmas lunch on December 25.
The hotel hosted the lunch at its own expense, including hundreds of meals for less fortunate people in Bendigo.
Other charges related to thefts from liquor stores and shops across Bendigo.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Martin Friend said McDonald walked into the All Seasons’ gaming area after the Christmas lunch and noticed the door of the bingo ticket machine was loose.
He forced it open and removed a stack of the tickets, causing $100 damage to the machine in the process.
The court heard McDonald opened five losing tickets then returned to the hotel, telling staff to “take the tickets off me” after realising his guilt.
He said he “couldn’t resist taking the tickets” when he saw the door to the machine was loose.
Senior Constable Friend said a photograph of McDonald in the Bendigo Advertiser helped police confirm the theft.
“There was a picture in the Bendigo Advertiser which showed him in the same clothes as the CCTV footage,” he said.
McDonald also faced charges for five other thefts in Bendigo throughout 2014.
The first was on April 3 last year, where McDonald stole a $73 bottle of alcohol from Liquorland McIvor Road by placing the bottle inside his shirt.
Later that day he went through the drive through and stole three slabs of Carlton Draught and three slabs of Johnnie Walker cans – valued at $201 – by placing them in his car.
He told police he could not remember stealing the alcohol, but it was “probably me”.
He also faced two charges for the theft of a four-pack of Jim Beam cans from Liquorland on Lyttleton Terrace on May 5 and the theft of $27 of groceries from IGA Eaglehawk on November 12.
McDonald stole a backpack and two chordless answering machines from Officeworks Bendigo on November 15 last year, valued at $424.
Police arrested McDonald at Bendigo Train Station on January 7 this year in relation to the thefts.
He was also completing a community corrections order at the time of the offending.
His defence counsel told the court McDonald had struggled with alcohol, illicit drug and prescription drug problems, and a breakdown in his relationship in 2014 had caused anxiety and depression.
Magistrate Richard Wright sentenced McDonald to a 12 month community corrections order, 100 hours of community work and assessment for drug, alcohol and mental health problems.
