A drug addict who broke into a Warrawong home with his mate and stole $500 worth of goods has avoided a full-time jail sentence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jonathan James Maguire and his co-offender, a juvenile who cannot be named for legal reasons, smashed a window at the Northcliffe Drive home in February last year, climbing through to gain entry into the residential unit before ransacking each of the rooms.
The pair made off with a 40-centimetre television, a CD player, an antique wrist watch and a grandfather clock.
Police were alerted to the break-in by the occupants of the home about 11 o'clock on the night of February 23.
Fact sheets tendered to the court said officers at the time believed culprits could have carried out the crime any time between 11pm that night and midday the previous day.
A forensic analysis of the scene uncovered fingerprints on a glass window in the kitchen.
The prints were sent away for processing and were eventually matched to Maguire. He was arrested in April at an address in Warrawong.
When asked about the break-in by police, Maguire was initially coy, claiming he didn't know where the address was, let alone carried out a crime there.
But the 23-year-old admitted to knowing his co-offender, telling police he was "a young lad from Lego", a colloquial name used by some members of the community to refer to the troubled Bundaleer Estate on Kully Way at Warrawong.
Maguire eventually admitted to carrying out the crime, pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated break and enter in Port Kembla Local Court earlier this year.
During a sentencing hearing in the NSW District Court on Wednesday, defence lawyer Nerissa Keay sought leniency for Maguire, telling Judge Paul Conlon her client had a limited criminal record despite having a troubled, dysfunctional upbringing.
She said he needed professional help to deal with his drug addiction.
Judge Conlon acknowledged Maguire's traumatic childhood, citing a sentencing report that said he had been exposed to domestic violence and drug use from a young age, and had been significantly affected by the suicide death of one of his mother's boyfriends.
Maguire told the report's author he had first taken "ice" at the age of 18, and by 20, had developed a "raging habit" which saw him ingest at least one gram of the illicit drug a day.
Judge Conlon handed Maguire a 12-month suspended prison sentence on the basis of his good prospects of rehabilitation and his young age.