By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN has been ordered to pay back more than $2000 to a Keysborough supermarket after going on a cosmetics stealing spree.
Shane Ronald Thompson, 30, of Dandenong, admitted to entering the Woolworths store with his partner and stealing a large amount of cosmetics on 25 November 2011. He then returned 11 minutes later for another heist.
During an inventory check, it was found 77 cosmetic items were missing, totalling $2208.93.
After being arrested in June 2012, Thompson told police he sold off the cosmetics for drugs.
Police prosecutor Ian Vandenbosch told the court neither Thompson nor his partner, both using drugs at the time, were able to remember specific details.
Thompson’s lawyer said the accused’s life had turned around since becoming a father in early 2012.
Thompson had himself been raised in a separated family “wracked by domestic violence”, his lawyer said. He had been chroming with spray paints when 11, moving onto “his nemesis” heroin, which was behind his lengthy history of thefts and driving offences.
At the time of the cosmetic theft, he and his partner were homeless, in an “itinerant lifestyle” and using heroin.
Thompson has since complied with a methadone treatment program, become full-time employed and is living with his young family in private rental accommodation.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell noted Thompson’s behaviour had changed significantly, fining him $800 with conviction, but taking “no further action” for the accused’s breach of a suspended sentence.
