A western Victorian man has avoided jail after forensic evidence from a can of soft drink left at the scene of a crime linked him to a break-in at a Ballarat mechanic business.
Brendan Batchelor, 30, was sentenced in the Ballarat Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday after admitting to breaking into the business in Delacombe, near Ballarat, in June last year.
The court was told Batchelor cut a chain link fence to access the garage, after which he re-directed security cameras and jimmied open the building’s front door.
Batchelor entered the workshop and, according to police, “ransacked the office for anything of value” including multiple petty cash tins, two laptops, and multiple power tools.
It was at this point that Batchelor made a move that would prove his undoing.
The Delacombe mechanic was broken into in 2023. (ABC News: Aleaxander Darling)
Thirsty work
The court was told CCTV footage from inside the repair shop showed Batchelor stopping to purchase a can of Coca-Cola from a vending machine.
He drank from the soft drink can before placing it on the shop counter.
That can, which was left behind, was forensically tested, tying Batchelor to the scene.
It was not the first time he had been caught out by the forensic squad.
The court was also told that around two months before the break-in at the mechanic business, Batchelor stole an SUV from a property in Winter Valley, south-west of Ballarat.
Police say Batchelor purchased a can of coke during the break-in (AAP: Yonhap)
Police located the vehicle in May 2023 and again linked Batchelor to the theft via forensic evidence, this time via a plastic water bottle left in the driver’s door.
Police informed the court Batchelor’s EpiPen and wallet, which included his identification, were also found in the vehicle.
Batchelor was arrested in October and subsequently pleaded guilty to four charges including theft and handling stolen goods.
Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz sentenced Batchelor to a 12-month community corrections order for the two separate incidents.
