Calab Wiegold, 20, of Matthews Avenue, denied being a passenger in the stolen Ford Courier but magistrate David Day found the offence proven and sentenced Wiegold to a 12-month jail sentence with a six-month non-parole period.

The Ford Courier, which belonged to an Orange business had been parked on Bowyer Street but was stolen after 4pm on September 16, 2017, and was detected by police at 4.40am on September 17. 

The employee who had parked the vehicle was told by police about the theft at 5am.

Police had been looking out for that model of vehicle and said 20 Ford Courier and Mazda Bravo utes had been stolen in the Orange region since June 2017. 

The stolen utes were of the same model and were found to be relatively easy to start and steal so thieves were targeting those vehicles.

About 4.40pm police were patrolling Byng Street when they saw the stolen ute travel south through the intersection of Autumn Street and Summer Street without giving way.

Police turned on their lights and sirens and pulled behind the ute, which stopped without indicating and both the driver and passenger jumped our with the driver running west on Icely Road and the passenger running East on Icely Road.

Police caught up with the driver in the front yard of his Icely Road home and although he would not tell them the identity of the passenger police found text messages on his mobile phone from him to Wiegold organising to meet up.

Wiegold’s dna was also later found on the beer bottle that was left in the car.

Wiegold could be eligible for parole on May 28, 2019, and Mr Day took his young age and need for rehabilitation into account during sentencing. 

Wiegold was also given a two-year supervised community corrections order for contravening an AVO on October 22 that he was given on July 12.

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