A six-month bout of dishonesty and break-in crimes at Dubbo and Narromine described as "contemptible and disgusting" by a magistrate has ended in at least six months in jail for the perpetrator.
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Kallup Poulson, 24, stole a stove top from a home and on multiple occasions used bank cards stolen by somebody else to make purchases of petrol, cigarettes, coffees and various other items.
The stove top belonged to people with a mortgage while the victims of the card crimes included a 93-year-old retirement village resident, and a woman staying at a Dubbo motel, Dubbo Local Court heard.
Poulson pleaded guilty to break, enter and steal, possessing housebreaking implements, 13 charges of dishonestly obtain property by deception and other offences committed between November and his arrest in May.
Magistrate Brian van Zuylen this week sentenced Poulson to a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail for the break and enter with a non-parole period of six months, as well as shorter concurrent jail terms for his other crimes.
The defence had submitted the first offences, where Poulson used a bank card stolen by someone else from a vehicle to make four purchases of less than $100 in one night, were serious but fell at the lower end of the scale.
They were "unsophisticated" and "drug-fuelled", the court heard.
Offences of receiving stolen property and two counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception - involving using a bank card within hours of it being stolen by someone else from a retirement village unit during a night in November - provoked comments from the magistrate.
"Does he realise the (victim) was a 93-year-old," Mr van Zuylen said.
"How contemptible and disgusting.
"(He) should be ashamed."
The magistrate also noted another victim was staying at a motel and was likely a tourist.
"What must she think of Dubbo," he said.
Poulson's solicitor said family members of the client were in the body of the court in support and that a pre-sentence report prepared by Community Corrections was "positive" and contained expressions of regret.
The solicitor conceded the theft of the stove top from the Narromine home in January during a break-in was serious and crossed the threshold for a jail sentence.
"The victims were paying off a mortgage," Mr van Zuylen said.
"They're working, he's not."
The defence asked the court to refrain from imposing a crushing sentence on the 24-year-old man and noted he had already been in custody since May 6.
Mr van Zuylen detailed the offences and said it seemed Poulson had "descended into drug use and criminal" activity.
When the magistrate handed down the sentence of 12 months in jail, there was an audible groan from the body of the court.
A non-parole period of six months was imposed and Poulson will be eligible for release to parole on November 5.