A WARRNAMBOOL crook who regularly offends has been locked up for another five months.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Shaun Kelson, 41, of Wilson Street, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to a number of theft-related offences.
Police said that on March 21 a friend of Kelson's received a number of text messages from him, one showing a smashed television inside her unit.
At 3pm police attended at an Archibald Street address and saw Kelson leaving the property.
He tried to flee but was stopped, shaped up to police and officers deployed capsicum foam.
There was damage to the television and walls in the home and Kelson said that he was owed $500 by the resident.
An intervention order was then put in place protecting the resident and banning Kelson from being at the home.
On April 24 Kelson got a taxi to the Aldi supermarket where he stole a $27 bottle of vodka.
The taxi driver noticed he had the bottle when he got back in the taxi.
Kelson then instructed the driver to go to the IGA supermarket where he stole two cans of soft drink worth $3.60 and $25 in cigarettes.
The driver was then instructed to go to Archibald Street where Kelson refused to pay the $43 taxi fee.
That offending also breached a corrections order imposed for previous similar offending.
Defence counsel Andrew Tweedly said his client had served 108 days in custody.
He said Kelson had an exceptionally lengthy criminal history and usually offended while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The solicitor said his client was repeating a cycle of serving jail time, being on corrections orders and then offending again.
"He says at his age he should not be repeating his mistakes, but he does," Mr Tweedly said.
Magistrate Peter Mellas said that during the past few years Kelson had engaged in offending involving dishonesty and aggression.
He said Kelson's problem was that he struggled when he was straight but when under the influence of substances he was "absolutely guaranteed" to offend.
"You can't be locked up forever but you're chipping away at your life," he said.
Kelson was jailed for five months which will be followed by a corrections order to involve live-in rehabilitation.