By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Bangholme ice addict who says he was “working on” eight stolen vehicles to help settle a drug debt has been jailed.
Christopher Jerome Fernandez, 42, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to eight charges of handling stolen goods as well as making a false vehicle compliance plate.
In sentencing, Judge Justin Hannebery said police seized the vehicles from a mechanic’s workshop in Dandenong about 9am on 21 April 2021.
Fernandez, who was working there at the time, was accused of handling the stolen Ford Ranger utes, BMWs, VW Tiguans and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
It was a “significant” though unvalued amount of property, Judge Hannebery noted.
Several vehicles displayed misleading VIN numbers, which matched those from other vehicles in NSW and Queensland.
One had a falsely manufactured VIN plate and compliance stickers, and another had no number plates or compliance stickers.
In a police interview, Fernandez said he was doing work on the cars for other people but wouldn’t say who they were.
He admitted using ice and having drug debts to settle.
There was no evidence of how much money Fernandez stood to gain, his exact plans for the vehicles or if he was involved in their theft, Judge Hannebery noted.
A week before the police raid, Fernandez was found by police sleeping in the driver’s seat next to a servo in Cheltenham Road, Dandenong.
His car had false number plates, a false VIN, and was seized.
Fernandez also pleaded guilty to making a false compliance plate for a Queensland man’s Mazda SUV in 2019.
The plate featured a VIN from a similar vehicle in NSW. It was used to successfully register the SUV, which had been a statutory write-off.
In 2020, the same man requested Fernandez to get a stolen Toyota Prado “ready for VicRoads”, and Fernandez stamped a false VIN to the chassis.
The Mumbai-born former IT manager said he started using meth in 2013 in order to work late at night.
His history of criminal dishonesty was almost solely due to his ice addiction, Judge Hannebery said.
Fernandez’s prospects were “guarded” but in an encouraging sign, had previously engaged with services at Dandenong Drug Court, Judge Hannebery said.
His relapse in 2020-’21 may have been caused by his treatment being disrupted during the Covid pandemic, the judge noted.
Fernandez was jailed for six months with an 18-month community corrections order.
The supervised CCO includes 150 hours of unpaid work and drug-addiction treatment.
