By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Cranbourne man has been chastised by a magistrate for involving his two-year-old son while shoplifting from a Bunnings store.
The 24-year-old concealed $676 of outdoor lights in his son’s pram during a family trip to the Springvale store on 29 July, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court heard.
“It doesn’t get much lower than using your own child as cover,” magistrate Jack Vandersteen said.
“What does that say about your moral compass?
“He’s an innocent child.”
The boy would look up to the accused as his “role model”, Mr Vandersteen said.
“Do you think he’ll grow up to think it’s OK to go in a shop and steal?”
The man was also in breach of a full intervention order barring him from being near his girlfriend and child at the time, as well as in breach of bail and a corrections order.
In June, the man breached the order by attending the girlfriend’s home to “say goodbye before he got clean”, the court heard.
He also pleaded guilty to smashing two of her phones, punching two holes in her home’s walls and calling her abusive names despite the intervention order in March.
At one point, the partner picked up her son to prevent the man from hitting her, the court was told.
He later told police that he’d “flipped it” after the partner called him names for not getting up from bed.
Defence lawyer Nick Power said it “flies in the face” with what the man had been learning at his mens behaviour change course.
“It appears that drug use has played some part.
“He tells me he doesn’t want to expose his son to the things he’s managed to do so far. He wants to put a stop to it.
“He doesn’t have the maturity or the facility to do that without help.”
Magistrate Vandersteen said the man had “very high” compliance with his corrections order until he “dropped off” in April, Mr Vandersteen said.
“And then you got into trouble.”
The man was convicted and placed on a supervised corrections order with judicial monitoring, drug testing and mental health treatment.
He was ordered to pay $1300 restitution for the property damage.
