Two men on an early morning crime spree caused significant damage during three failed commercial burglaries, before being caught red-handed by police during the fourth.
Steven James Babic previously admitted to a string of charges, including numerous counts of aggravated burglary, related to that and other offending.
He was 40 years old when Acting Justice Anthony Hopkins handed him a backdated two-and-a-half-year jail term in July as the only one of the two men arrested.
In sentencing remarks published this week, the judge ordered for the man to serve the remaining one year and 11 months in the community by way of a drug and alcohol treatment order.
Babic and an unknown man began their unsuccessful crime spree about 3am on April 27, 2023, when they forced open the Kippax Shopping Centre sliding doors while wearing balaclavas and gloves.
The pair attached an ATM inside to a car using a snatch strap. When they tried driving off to dislodge the ATM, the strap broke twice and they gave up.
About an hour later, the two men used a metal bar to pry open the front sliding doors of the McKellar Soccer Club. They both entered, took nothing of value, and left after about 20 seconds.
Another 20 minutes later, Babic and his accomplice drove to the Ampol petrol station in Mitchell and unsuccessfully tried to open its main entrance.
While Babic was only charged with damage property for the third location of the night, Acting Justice Hopkins said "it may be inferred that the property damage was caused in an attempt to enter the service station".
Finally, the pair entered the Harmonie German Club in Narrabundah about 5am and were captured on CCTV taking cash from vending machines.
Police arrived 15 minutes later and saw both men leaving. Babic was arrested but the other burglar crawled back inside the club and escaped.
Babic was only carrying $270 in cash. Inside the front entrance to the club, police found a "jimmy bar", a laptop, and a bag with $908 in cash.
The judge described all the burglaries, committed while Babic was in the community on conditional liberty, as planned but unsophisticated.
Acting Justice Hopkins also found the man's moral culpability for the crimes was reduced due to his difficult upbringing and subsequent drug addiction.
"I accept that you had experiences as a child that no child should have to face," the judge said.
The man was homeless and struggling with an addiction to methamphetamine at the time of his involvement with the burglaries, which the judge found substantially contributed to his offending.
Factoring in the time already spent behind bars, Babic's drug and alcohol treatment order, which focuses on rehabilitation, will expire in June 2026.
