Car fires, vehicle thefts land Orange teenager in jail

During the sentencing of the 16-year-old boy, who legally cannot be identified, police prosecutor Sergeant Beau Riley said for many of the teen's victims their cars were the only property they owned.

"It's people like themselves, they aren't well off," Sergeant Riley said referring to the teenager and his co-offenders.

He said one of those victims was a single mother who faced hardship at the loss of her car and when the police spoke to her about the theft she didn't know how she was going to get her kids around.

"It was the only property she owned," he said.

The teenager, has been in custody since his arrest on November 9 last year and appeared in Orange Children's Court via an audio visual link.

According to court documents, over the course of four days the then 15-year-old was a passenger in a stolen car, he stole six vehicles, set two of them on fire, committed two aggravated break and enters, a robbery, three larcenies, two police pursuits, a petrol drive-off and upon his arrest he was found in possession of 14.7 grams of cannabis.

Several of the offences, which took place in Orange and Millthorpe, were revealed when his mobile phone was seized and police found "copious" videos and images that showed him driving in a dangerous manner and wearing gloves and face coverings.

The crime spree started when the teenager was a passenger in a stolen white Nissan Altima sedan in Orange between 1am and 1.30am on November 5, last year. The car had been stolen from Bathurst the previous day at an unknown time.

However, moments later he got out of that vehicle and stole an unlocked Toyota Camry that had the key left in it. He drove that car from the scene and at 2.10am stopped and stole a fuel card from another parked car.

Then within the next half-hour he was involved in a break and enter at a west Orange house.

During the break-in he stole a carving knife from the kitchen but was chased out of the house by a man who lived there. The boy then turned on the man and threatened him with the knife.

In his fright, the man tripped over on the road sustaining lacerations to his hands, forearm, knees and feet.

The teen then stood over the man, pointed the knife at him and demanded the victim handover a watch that had been handed down from the victim's late father.

However, the teenager and four other unknown people ran off when the victim's wife ran outside calling to the victim.

The victim's iPad was discovered in the front yard along with items from other related incidents.

Magistrate David Day said the teenager repeatedly demanded, "give me your watch, give me your watch" while standing over the victim with the knife.

"That's the problem, he's dangerous," Mr Day said.

About 2.50am the teen and other offenders stole items from a ute, then entered a house through closed but unlocked doors and stole Milwaukee power tools. The occupants were home at the time.

Five minutes later they stole a brown Toyota Rav4 SUV that was valued about $1700. The vehicle was unlocked and the key left inside.

The teenager drove the vehicle to Lone Pine Avenue and co-offenders drove the other stolen vehicles to the location and about 5am he set fire to the Rav4 and Nissan Altima using a lighter and paper. Both vehicles were destroyed.

From there the teen drove a stolen D-Max ute to Tate Crescent and parked it before he and two others offenders were picked up in the Camry.

Police found the ute and seized for forensic analysis.

The teenager continued the offending for another three days, each time in the early hours of the morning.

During that period, the teenager was involved in two police pursuits. During the first pursuit, the then 15-year-old drove a white Toyota Camry west on Cargo Road at 2.27am on Sunday, November 6. He reached speeds of more than 100km/h in a 50km/h zone before police lost sight of him and ended the pursuit.

However, he was involved in another police pursuit in a beige Toyota Camry at 1.42am the next day. According to police, the teenager drove east on the Northern Distributor Road near the Mitchell Highway intersection and during the subsequent pursuit he veered onto the oncoming lane while driving above 100km/h in an 80km/h zone. The pursuit was ended due to the danger and the car was abandoned near the the Millthorpe Road intersection at Shadforth and police seized it for forensic analysis.

Police conducted extensive investigations into the crime spree and arrested the teenager at 10.40am on Wednesday, November 9. During the arrest they found the cannabis in his room.

Solicitor Carmen Just said the teenager had been released from custody about three weeks before these offences.

"He tells me that he wants to remain fit and has been in training since he's been in custody," she said.

She also said his plans for the future include staying off drugs, finding employment or attending TAFE to keep occupied and he's particularly interested in doing scaffolding work. She also said: "there are prospects of rehabilitation".

Mr Day said a message needed to be sent in regard to the ongoing vehicle thefts and car fires in Orange.

"The community of Orange has had enough of it since 2019, end of 2018, it just basically hasn't stopped," he said.

"They are nearly always males, young males, who are involved in this sort of caper.

"They stop doing it when they've got a job and have their own car."

Mr Day gave the teenager a term of full-time custody for two years, with six-month without parole until August 3, for riding in stolen cars, stealing and driving vehicles, robbery, aggravated break and enter and setting cars on fire. He will be supervised on his release from juvenile detention but a conviction was not recorded due to his age at the time of offending.

"Each of these are sufficiently serious to attract a control order, I'm quite happy to make them concurrent," Mr Day said about his plans to keep the boy locked up in a juvenile detention facility.

Mr Day also gave the boy full-time custody, without a conviction for being involved in a police pursuit, obtaining property by deception and larceny. He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months for the police pursuit.

For possession of a prohibited drug the boy was placed on a bond without a conviction.

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