AUSTRALIA COMPUTER STOLEN FROM YMCA RECOVEREDbowral.yourguideMan jailed over stolen car, goods
Monday, 22 August 2005

A 21-year-old Queanbeyan man has been jailed for 18 months after he was caught driving a stolen car without a licence in Bowral earlier this year.

Rodney Thomas Barratt was found guilty of driving while disqualified and receiving property stolen in NSW in Moss Vale Local Court last week.

The court heard Barratt was caught with the stolen car and a back seat full of stolen office property while he was filling up the car at a petrol station in Bong Bong Street on June 16 this year.

Police had been on the lookout for the silver Toyota Corolla Barratt was putting petrol in after receiving reports of an erratic driver in a similar car travelling on Moss Vale Road, Burradoo, earlier that morning.

When police approached Barratt he denied being the driver of the car and said he had hitchhiked from Queanbeyan to Bowral with the driver.

Two other men with Barratt at the time also said the driver had gone to the toilet, but police checks failed to find the man.

Police then noticed the back seat of the car was filled with office equipment, including a computer tower and monitor, fax, answering machine and office supplies.

The men were taken to Bowral Police Station where investigations revealed the office equipment had been stolen from the YWCA Housing Program building in the ACT earlier that day, with the car also stolen from the ACT.

The two passengers travelling with Barratt told Bowral Police Barratt had turned up at their home with the car and they had decided to go for a drive with him.

Both men said the stolen goods were in the car at the time Barratt picked them up.

Barratt declined to be interviewed in relation to the matter.

Police checks revealed Barratt had been disqualified from driving until March 27, 2007 at the time of his arrest.

Barratt will be eligible for release on December 15 this year after a six-month non-parole period.