Bendigo teens charged with city car theft had history with police

A 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl from California Gully and a 17-year-old boy from Kangaroo Flat are due to appear in the Bendigo Children's Court in coming days after being charged over an incident which saw them allegedly speed across the city pursued by a police air unit.

Another two teens, from the suburbs of Fitzroy and Fawkner, were due to appear in court in Melbourne.

Detective Scott Stinchcomb from Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit alleged the teens had been travelling in a vehicle stolen from Northcote when they broke into a house in Brighton in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police were called to the property in Moule Avenue, a block back from the beach in the affluent suburb of Brighton, at around 12.20am.

A resident there had reportedly disturbed one of the burglars, who took off, before realising a black Mercedes Tourer had been stolen.

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Detective Stinchcomb said an alleged aggravated burglary in Bentleigh, which was still being investigated, was "very likely" to have also been carried out by the group.

Police had then tracked the stolen car from Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs to the city's west, using overhead surveillance.

While media reports have stated the Mercedes was travelling at speeds of up to 170km/h, Detective Stinchcomb said police were still waiting on air wing footage to confirm speeds.

At Yarraville Gardens, in the city's industrial west, the teens dumped the Mercedes and fled on foot.

They were seen jumping fences into the backyards of various properties, and according to media reports were captured hiding in a local resident's yard and garden and in his neighbour's garden shed.

While the events might have seemed dramatic, the sort of offending the Bendigo teenagers had been charged with was not unusual, Detective Stinchcomb said.

"We're dealing with this on a regular basis - youth offending involving aggravated burglaries, the majority to steal high-end vehicles - a Mercedes or BMW - and then engage the police in high speed pursuits," he said.

With the risk to the public "far outweighing" the benefit of stopping them, the police usually abandoned pursuit of the young offenders.

"When we get involved they just drive faster," he said.

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