A MAN who drank three bottles of vodka before starting a fight with a Laverton milk bar owner has been convicted of theft and causing more than $1200 of damage.
Jake Graham, 22, of Werribee, trashed the milk bar at Railway Avenue, Laverton on January 14 after paying for a pack of cigarettes with a $50 note and believing he had been given incorrect change.
Werribee Magistrates Court heard Graham left the store but began banging on the shop window about 3.15pm.
The shop’s manager confronted him and a push-and-shove broke out. Graham followed him back inside, picking up two cardboard display signs and hurling them,
then swiping several items off the counter.
The court heard Graham smashed his fist through an acrylic glass barrier protecting a cash register, dislodged the monitor and pushed it onto the ground.
He stole three pornographic magazines as he left the store and rode away on a push bike. Police arrested him nearby shortly after, and escorted him to Laverton police station for questioning.
The court heard he was “extremely aggressive, noncooperative and made no admissions”.
Graham’s defence counsel, who said Graham had drunk three bottles of vodka that morning, described the offending as a matter of “confusion and alcohol mixed together”, and the theft of the magazines as “vigilante justice” because he thought he had been short-changed.
Graham was ordered to undergo mental health treatment and alcohol therapy as part of a community corrections order.
