A 21-year-old East Nowra man, who pleaded guilty to stealing a wallet from a man in a mobility scooter in Nowra and going on a spending spree with a stolen visa card, has been sentenced to 18 months’ jail.
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Tyler Burns, of Wallace Street, appeared in Nowra Local Court on Thursday before Magistrate Graham Blewitt, charged with steal from a person and three counts of dishonestly obtain property by deception.
Burns pleaded guilty to all four charges.
The court heard between 2.20pm and 2.25pm on November 13, Burns approached a 65-year-old man in a mobility scooter at the rear of Spotlight Nowra, offering to help him into his vehicle.
Instead, Burns stole the man’s wallet, which contained $400 cash, a visa card and personal papers, from a bag on the front of the scooter.
He was seen running through Sturgiss Newsagency, across Junction Street and down Morrison’s Arcade before disappearing in the Egans Lane car park.
He then went on a spending spree, using the card’s paywave facility to purchase $182 worth of cigarettes from two separate shops and $80 worth of alcohol.
The wallet was later found in the cistern of the men’s toilet at the Bridge Hotel.
Police said CCTV footage showed Burns running through Sturgiss Newsagency and he had been captured in CCTV footage in the Nowra CBD earlier in the day wearing the same clothes.
Burns was arrested by police on November 18 at the Australian Hotel while playing the poker machines.
During a police interview he claimed he was homeless and sleeping under a tree.
In his interview he said “You have to do what I do to get by.”
Magistrate Blewitt sentenced him to 18 months’ jail from November 19, with a non-parole period of 12 months.
