A laptop, smartphone and gaming consoles were among thousands of dollars worth of electronics stolen from the Bendigo hospital site.
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Torbyn Lock, 21, was sentenced in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court to an 18-month community corrections order and a $500 fine after pleading guilty to three burglaries, as well as other offences including theft, recklessly causing injury, trespassing, driving while disqualified, driving an unregistered vehicle, and failing to appear on bail.
About 11.30pm on May 27, 2017, Lock climbed the scaffolding on the former Hyett building and entered the building through a roof cavity.
Lock stole a laptop computer, an Apple iPhone and charger, worth about $3000. The burglary and theft was captured on CCTV.
More court news:
A little over a week later, on June 4, Lock entered a construction site next to the old hospital and used some temporary metal fencing as a ladder to scale the wall of the pharmacy.
He smashed out besser blocks, entered the false ceiling of the building and removed plaster ceiling tiles to drop into the pharmacy’s offices.
Inside, Lock found Xbox consoles, controllers and cords worth about $2400, which he stole.
Then on the night of June 17, Lock again went to the Bendigo Health site with the intention of stealing more goods.
Staff heard noises near the pharmacy and went to investigate.
Lock saw a staff member through a window and fled, but not before discharging several fire extinguishers around the hospital. Two fire extinguishers worth $100 were not found.
On June 21, Lock’s father returned the stolen electronics to Bendigo police.
Lock admitted to police he had thrown objects at a woman last February, pushed her around and placed his hands around her throat after a verbal argument escalated.
Lock also admitted to entering a vacant house in Kennington in July last year.
In November, Lock was intercepted while driving on Sunset Drive at Eppalock. Police discovered his probationary licence was disqualified and the vehicle’s registration had expired seven months earlier.
Defence lawyer Luke Docherty told the court his client sought help to address his violent offending, but faced a six-month waiting list.
He said his client was only 19 and 20 at the time of offending, and the first burglary was opportunistic.
In sentencing, magistrate Patrick Southey noted Lock was still very young, and hoped that with the assistance of the community corrections order, he would get his life back on track.
But Mr Southey gave him a stern warning.
“Assaulting women is really serious. You’ll go to jail if that happens again,” Mr Southey said.
As part of his community corrections order, Lock must undertake a men’s behavioural change program.
He must also pay $100 compensation.
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