By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A PAKENHAM ice-and-heroin user has been bailed to a family address after stealing a car while on bail.
Nathan Gartside, 26, had admitted to injecting himself with heroin in Pakenham, hours before the car theft from a home in Star Crescent, Hallam, according to a police bail summary tendered at court on 4 April.
Gartside was accused of breaking into a white Corolla with a screwdriver, then hotwiring it on 13 March. The rear window of the car was smashed as he reversed through the driveway gate.
That night he allegedly met two pairs of friends on separate occasions, stopping to smoke ice in a milk bar car park in Anaconda Road, Narre Warren.
About 11.25, police allegedly found Gartside with four other people in a Berwick car park with the stolen Corolla and a Triton ute spray-painted orange to conceal its identity.
Police say Gartside made full admissions to stealing a car, as well as using heroin and ice. He’d admitted to a daily 0.5 gram ice and 0.2 gram heroin habit.
Gartside told police he’d stolen the car because he’d been kicked out of his sister’s house and needed a place to sleep, the bail summary stated.
At the time, he was on three counts of bail and had failed to appear in court on all three matters.
According to a bail summary, he had been charged with possession of cannabis during a police raid in Narre Warren on 10 July and with driving a vehicle with false plates and possessing ice and GHB on 31 July.
On 2 October, he was charged with possessing ice, GHB and a home-made sword found by police in his vehicle.
Police told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court they were concerned he would continue to commit offences while on bail.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said he’d grant bail with strict conditions including a 7pm curfew, attending a CREDIT bail support program and thrice-weekly reporting to police.
Gartside was also ordered not to associate with the four co-accused in the 13 March incident. They include his girlfriend who watched from the court gallery.
“I know you’re in a relationship,” Mr Vandersteen told Gartside. “Once you start to comply, we’ll pull (the restrictions) back.”
Gartside was bailed to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 27 April.
