By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Narre Warren serial burglar has told police that driving the wrong way at a fast speed and into head-on traffic on Peninsula Link was “not that bad”.
Benjamin Delphin placed other drivers at serious risk, forcing them to take “urgent evasive action” to avoid him in the stolen silver Suburu Impreza on 9 January, police told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 2 October.
The Impreza, which had been stolen from a Cranbourne home earlier that day, was found burnt out in Berwick on 10 January.
During a police interview, Delphin denied stealing the car. He said he’d been given the keys by a younger relative.
The driving was “reckless at times but not that bad”, he told police.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing an Endeavour Hills man’s four-wheel-drive with a trailer.
Using credit cards stolen from the victim’s wallet, Delphin and two other males bought more than $500 of items from four servos in Pakenham and Berwick, as well as food from McDonald’s in Berwick that morning.
The vehicle was later found burnt-out in Homestead Road, Berwick. The trailer and wallet have not been recovered.
Delphin was also charged over successive commercial break-ins, starting with a servo in Narre Warren South on 11 January.
About 3.15am, he reversed a Nissan Skyline against the front door bollards and smashed his way through the glass doors with metal bolt-cutters.
He was unable to break his way into a locked cigarette cabinet, but stole a blue, plastic fuel tank meter.
Ten minutes later, Delphin and a co-accused male successfully smashed into a Narre Warren South supermarket and into its cigarette cabinet, stealing $2500 of cigarettes and other items.
That day, the pair was arrested and cigarettes were seized during a police raid of a Narre Warren house. Most of the stolen cigarettes weren’t recovered, the court heard.
Delphin told police he was drug-fuelled at the time, stealing cigarettes to get more drugs.
He also pleaded guilty to unlicensed driving, driving an unregistered vehicle, a petrol drive-off as well as two shoplifting episodes at Target stores.
In the latter offences, he shoved $2000 worth of iPads, headphones and a speaker down his pants.
The court heard that Delphin’s parents had both abused drugs and served jail terms as he grew up. He’d also suffered significant family violence at a young age, started using drugs at 13 and had spent time in custody as a child and adult.
Delphin had only experienced family support recently, through the family of his partner, a defence lawyer said.
He had been released from jail without parole mid last year, and had never been given the chance of trying a supervisory order, the lawyer said.
Magistrate Pauline Spencer said she was considering whether to jail Delphin for longer than the six months he’d already spent in remand.
His jail term was to be followed by a community corrections order, Ms Spencer said.
