By Cam Lucadou-Wells
In a twist on the Goldilocks tale, a man has been found naked and asleep in a vacated rental home in Springvale.
The 38-year-old chef had become homeless, two weeks after being released from prison, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told on 18 June.
He broke in through a faulty glass back door and set up base in the master bedroom.
A tenant, who was due to move in, unlocked the front door and entered.
The tenant discovered raw meat in the kitchen sink, and clothes on the floor before finding the intruder on the bed.
Police ordered the man to remove himself and his property.
He also faced a charge of shoplifting $193 of groceries from a Springvale supermarket in contravention of his bail conditions.
His defence lawyer told the court that the crimes were committed out of desperation due to the man being “forced out” of his post-prison accommodation.
The man had arrived from Vietnam as an infant then worked as a trained chef for at least 15 years.
He had succumbed to a heroin addiction, which featured prominently on his criminal record, the lawyer said.
Since the incident, the man’s sister had offered him a place to stay, with the hope of finding work.
He was seeking treatment for depression, a heart condition and Hepatitis C.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen initially sentenced the man to a corrections order which focused on drug treatment.
However the man opted instead for a jail term.
His lawyer told the court that the man had previously been unable to abide by his CCO conditions.
He had recently served three months’ jail for breaching a community corrections order.
The man was imprisoned for 21 days.
