Defendant vandalized father's car

A 26-year-old man was today remanded into custody after he admitted smashing his father’s car windows and stealing credit from a guesthouse.

David Robinson of St George’s pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to smashing the windows of his father Harley Robinson’s car on October 3.

The court heard at 8:10am that day, Mr Robinson had left his home on Anchorage Lane, St George’s to attend his farm.

At 8:45am, his son approached him and asked for money. The court heard Mr Robinson didn’t want to discuss money with his son and told him he wasn’t going to give him any money.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke told the court Robinson became “enraged” and told his father he was going to do something to his mother and smash up something around the house.

Mr Robinson then put his tools in the shed and headed back to the house in his car.

He saw his son walk through the golf course towards the house.

Mr Robinson went inside and told his wife about the conversation. They then heard a large smashing noise outside and saw two of the car windows were shattered.

Mr and Mrs Robinson then saw their son running off with a mallet, shouting “F**k off, f**k you”.

In court, Robinson said: “It was my form of payback to him. At that moment, I was enraged and I was very angry and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

In another incident, Robinson admitted entering Clearview Guesthouse as a trespasser and stealing keys on October 1.

He also admitted putting a $5,988 refund onto his credit card at Clearview on the same date.

Ms Clarke told the court at 9pm on October 1, Ruth Paynter of Clearview Guesthouse secured the property and left for the evening.

The next day, the property manager told her there had been a break-in and several sets of keys had been stolen. Ms Paynter contacted the police.

That same day, the complainant was clearing her card machine and saw three refunded transactions, to the total value of $5,988.

Ms Paynter contacted the bank and reported the matter. She then went to the bank and checked the accounts. The money had been transferred to an HSBC credit card.

The matter was reported to police.

Robinson was arrested by police and officers found an HSBC card on him that had the same number as the card the money from Clearview has been transferred to.

He admitted smashing his father’s car windows and admitted breaking into Clearview.

Addressing the court on this matter, Robinson said: “A few months ago, I stayed at a friend’s guestroom there and I saw the security there was low so I saw it as an easy spot to do a robbery.”

Robinson also told the court he hadn’t been working all year and has been looking for a job.

“I am very sorry that I stole from her. The money is still in my bank account and you can take that money and put it back.”

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner adjourned the matter to November 28 for sentencing and ordered pre-sentencing reports.

Robinson was remanded into custody.