By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man has pleaded guilty to stealing a Corolla that he took for a ‘test drive’ from a Hallam car business.
Bradley Stanway, 32, of Cranbourne, had struck an agreement with Hallam Auto Works to test-drive the car for three weeks from 11 October 2016.
He agreed to pay the business $140 a week for the car, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
Stanway was arrested three months later, with the car still not recovered and no further payments made to the business, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Gary van der Poel told the court.
Stanway originally denied the deal and that he’d driven the car.
When shown CCTV footage of him paying for petrol for the Corolla on 3 November, he told police he had no recollection of the incident.
“I must have been in the vehicle but I wasn’t driving.”
He was also charged with driving another car while unlicensed.
A defence lawyer said Stanway’s drug and alcohol addictions weren’t addressed in a voluntary work only CCO he received in April.
His cannabis abuse had spiralled into speed, ice and ecstasy consumption and jail a decade ago.
Over the past two years, he relapsed and was trying to get help, the lawyer said.
Stanway had recently found stable accommodation after months of living in cars, motels and “wherever he could find”.
“He is just starting to get the ball rolling.”
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell noted that Stanway’s offending pre-dated his current CCO.
He hadn’t been able to complete his 75 hours of community work on that order due to corrections officers not having his phone number.
Ms O’Donnell placed Stanway on a 12-month supervised corrections order with work, drug and mental health treatment.
She said if Stanway didn’t engage with his new CCO in the next three months, she would jail him.
Stanway will appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court for judicial monitoring on 5 February 2018.
