by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Springvale problem gambler has been jailed after being found with more than $114,000 of stolen groceries from a shoplifting racket and a commercial quantity of heroin.
Thi Vo, 48, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to commercial drug trafficking, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime as well as offering a bribe to a police officer.
In response to large-scale shoplifiting, Coles Supermarkets hired private investigators to track a known recidivist thief in 2022.
Vo, a sole parent of three, was seen receiving stolen bags of groceries and tins of baby formula and other items from the thief and his associates on multiple occasions.
In October 2022, Vo was intercepted by police on Balmoral Avenue Springvale with a handbag filled with $4423 in cash, $77,000 cash in the driver’s side footwell and $1185 of health and beauty products in a bag in the car boot.
Vo attempted to bribe a police officer with the discovered $81,423 cash.
“You have money found in my car. You let me go and you can have it.
“You let me go. You have.”
More than $113,000 of stolen goods including health and beauty products, clothing and household items in the back rooms, shed and garage of Vo’s parent’s home in Springvale.
Police also seized seven wrapped blocks of heroin weighing 227 grams as well as foils and bags of MDMA, methylamphetamine, ketamine and heroin.
The total amount of pure heroin was about 192 grams – nearly four times the threshold for commercial trafficking.
In a police interview, Vo said she’d paid a homeless man $200 for the bag of vitamins, health and beauty products in her car.
Denying she knew the goods were stolen, she had met him several times and sold the items to others including Springvale markets to pay off her gambling debts.
Vo claimed the $77,000 cash was lent by a friend to help her pay for her son’s house. The other cash was from selling her house, and she was on the way to depositing it at the bank.
She denied the drugs were hers, saying “my friend f***ed me up”.
In sentencing on 14 April, judge Douglas Trapnell said Vo’s offending was mid-range in seriousness for those charges.
He noted there was no evidence that Vo physically trafficked heroin.
“Clearly, financial gain was the motivation for most of your offending conduct, although, I accept you were not living an extravagant or grandiose lifestyle as a consequence.”
Vo had been running a restaurant up until Covid lockdowns forced its closure in 2020.
After that, she had been using a variety of drugs and alcohol for 18 months before her arrest – a habit that cost her up to $700 a week.
Judge Trapnell said Vo’s $100,000 in debts to loan sharks helped explain her offending, but didn’t excuse it.
Her previous offences such as theft, money laundering, obtaining property by deception and assault with a weapon dated from 1997.
Her sons described her as a loving person who “fought to become the best mother you can be”, attributing her gambling and substance problems to frequent domestic violence in the past.
Vo was regretful about her offending’s impact on her family, but didn’t show genuine victim empathy or insight into the impact on the community at large, Judge Trapnell found.
Despite some recent counselling, her rehabilitation prospects were “somewhat guarded”.
Vo was jailed for five years and eight months – and eligible for parole after three-and-a-half years.
She has already served 290 days in pre-sentence detention.
