A Batemans Bay man was lucky to escape jail after he was convicted of committing an alcohol and drug induced rampage through Steamers Restaurant in Wollongong.
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Dylan Watts, 25, was convicted of breaking and entering and intentionally destroying property at the restaurant in the early hours of Friday, April 1, 2021.
He was sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order, fined $2200 and must complete 375 hours of community service.
Mr Watts must also pay $13,305 in compensation for damages to the restaurant and was fined $800 for destroying property.
According to court documents, Mr Watts was captured by the restaurant's CCTV cameras on the night of the incident.
He entered the restaurant just before 4am and poured himself a drink at the bar.
For the next hour, footage showed Mr Watts load bottles of alcohol into a garbage bag, a crate and a fridge trolley and wheel them outside and over the railing.
After smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer he poured from the taps, Mr Watts entered the restaurant kitchen and defecated in the sink before he stood up and urinated into it.
Footage showed him pick up his faeces and smear it onto the glass fridge doors, draw a love heart and a smiley face with them, and urinate again into a fridge.
While the police facts described Mr Watts as having appeared "quite coherent" and "not intoxicated" on the CCTV footage, his lawyer Wayne Boom argued otherwise in court.
"[Mr Watts] told me he was affected by recreational drugs and by alcohol and in my view this sort of behaviour could not be explained unless someone was 'wasted' for want of a better word," Mr Boom said.
"The police do not believe he was under the influence because he was so deliberate, but the very actions themselves suggest someone who is not acting normally."
During a Community Corrections assessment, Mr Watts claimed to have had a psychotic episode and had very little memory of the incident.
"Mr Watts had a fallout with his mother which resulted in him leaving the [Batemans Bay] area and going to Wollongong," a Community Corrections officer said.
"He was depressed and upset and said alcohol, LSD and cocaine consumption led to him becoming psychotic."
Magistrate Doug Dick told Mr Watts he was very lucky to be leaving the court room and not be going to jail and said his previous good record and guilty plea was taken into account in the sentencing.
"No doubt your dad here today is extremely embarrassed by what you did. I'm not going to lecture you, but what you did was disgraceful," Magistrate Dick said.
"You're very lucky to be leaving today and not going to jail and you're going to have to earn dad's trust and the community's trust back."
The intensive corrections order means Mr Watts will serve two years jail in the community and came with conditions of good behaviour, supervision, engagement in mental health assessment and 375 hours of community service.
Magistrate Dick told Mr Watts the future was in his hands.
"If you end up in jail in the future it is down to your fault and no one else," he said.
"Every hour you work think to yourself it is better than being locked up and don't get your priorities in the wrong order."
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