Western Crime Squad detectives swooped at a Melbourne shopping centre to catch a Ballarat East woman and an Alfredton man responsible for a "spree" of car thefts across the state.
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Details about the police's Operation Viper were revealed at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Thursday as Kandice Smith, 30, fronted court to plead guilty to a string of charges.
The court heard part of the spree saw Smith drive a stolen Ford Ranger through Kangaroo Flat.
Smith was one of many arrested as part of the Western Crime Squad operation, which police said spanned from Cobram in the north to Colac in the south, and from Horsham to Melbourne's inner city suburbs.
The court heard Smith's offending began in May 2023 after beginning a relationship with a male co-accused in February 2023.
The 24-year-old co-accused has had additional charges laid against him, with his matter likely to resolve in the higher County Court. It is not yet known if he intends to plead guilty or not guilty.
Between the night of March 3, 2023 and the morning of March 4, 2023, Smith and the male co-accused stole a Ford Ranger from an Ararat address, with the car's keys left in its ignition overnight.
Smith was also seen driving the stolen Ford Ranger in the Maldon and Kangaroo Flat areas on March 13 and 14, 2023.
The stolen car was later found in Maldon on March 15, 2023, after calls to police about suspicious loiterers on the town's main road.
Smith's fingerprints were found on the car, as well as on a packet of cigarettes and a receipt for the cigarettes found inside. Registration plates stolen from a Yarraville address were also found in the car.
A kilometre from where the stolen Ford Ranger was found, Smith and the male co-accused stole a Ford Falcon station wagon parked on the nature strip, between the night of March 14 and the morning of March 15, 2023.
The pair were later seen sitting in the outstanding station wagon outside of an address in the suburb of Reservoir on the morning of March 16, 2023.
One of the unit's residents noticed the pair waiting suspiciously in the stolen car and took a photo of them on her phone.
When the unit's occupants left for work, Smith and the man broke-into the unit by cutting open a mesh covering and ransacked the inside.
Several items were taken from the property, notably $11,000 in jewellery, coins and pairs of keys.
Police established a crime scene at the unit at about 3.45pm that day, and found a bottle inside of the property with Smith's DNA on it.
The following day the pair stole a Toyota Land Cruiser from the front of an Ararat address with the keys left inside.
At about 10.30am later that morning, Smith and the male co-accused broke-into a house in Dunnstown and again ransacked the property.
The house's owner was alerted to their presence via a motion activated CCTV camera, and arrived home at about 12pm to find a small basket containing car keys and a garage door remote missing.
The CCTV camera captured the pair arriving in the stolen Land Cruiser, and Smith carrying an axe.
On March 21, 2023 the pair were seen at a gold buying business on Swanston Street in Melbourne, selling $2655 of stolen jewellery before taking off in a Isuzu DMax ute stolen from the Gellibrand Football Club on March 20.
Police spotted the outstanding ute and followed Smith and the male co-accused out of the CBD to the Highpoint Shopping Centre.
The pair parked the car at the shopping centre's underground car park at about 2pm.
Western Crime Squad detectives and police officers circled in on the pair, who were arrested at the JD Sports store in the shopping centre.
Smith had served 183 days of pre-sentence detention across two jail stints before Thursday's hearing.
Smith's lawyer Brett O'Sullivan spoke on Smith's traumatic childhood, which resulted in a PTSD diagnosis, as well as her issues with drug use and finding stable housing.
Magistrate Guillaume Bailin said Smith's prospects of rehabilitation were "guarded" considering her failure to complete earlier court-mandated rehabilitation programs.
The magistrate said he was considering a prison sentence with a non-parole period for the various offences.
"They are selfish, unsophisticated, and linked to an ongoing and unrestrained drug addiction," Magistrate Bailin said.
"She has an active role, she is not a passive participant in any of those matters... she is effectively using these stolen cars as if they are her own."
Magistrate Bailin adjourned the matter until January 29 for Smith to be assessed for a community corrections order.
He warned it would be unlikely she would be put on a corrections order, but reserved his sentence pending the assessment outcome.
"Her and her associates do whatever they want in the community because it benefits them and it feeds whatever they want to deal with," Magistrate Bailin said.
"It is a fairly tragic position for someone that is only 30."
Smith will reappear in court on January 29.
