A man who said he bought an angle grinder to work on his grandmother's shed has been found guilty of using it to rob two Canberra pizza shops while also stealing a delivery car with GPS tracking that led to his downfall.
A recently-published ACT Supreme Court judgment found Jacob Williams-Savage guilty of 10 charges relating to burglary, car theft, and property damage across nearly one week in April last year.
The first time he forced entry into the Florey Domino's store using a crowbar, he failed to open the safe but managed to steal $60.
He also allegedly stole a Ford Fiesta, one of the delivery cars.
Despite working on it vigorously with both the angle grinder and the crowbar, he was not successful in his attempts to open the safe.
Justice David Mossop
On another night, he was able to use the grinder to open the store's safe, stealing $7560 and keys to a Toyota Echo.
He then went to the Domino's store in Fyshwick where he tried the same tactic again but failed to make any inroads into the safe.
"Despite working on it vigorously with both the angle grinder and the crowbar, he was not successful in his attempts to open the safe," Justice David Mossop said.
In a separate incident, he used the crowbar to smash into a beauty salon in Page, but he bolted and drove away after it appeared something had disturbed him.
All of his offending was captured on CCTV footage and five days after stealing the Echo, police found it had reversed into a Fyshwick store.
Examinations revealed Williams-Savage's fingerprints, as well as grinder discs, gloves, a sledgehammer and crowbar.
A backpack containing his DNA was also found hanging upside down with a hammer hanging out of it.
Throughout the offending, he made numerous phone calls that connected him with the offending.
During a police interview, he said he bought the grinder discs and drill bit because he was working on a shed at his grandmother's place and levelling out the posts.
Williams-Savage pleaded not guilty to all charges except for one and after a judge-alone trial, he was found guilty of all except one count of aggravated burglary and the theft of the Fiesta.
The Crown case was a circumstantial one, relying on the similarities between the burglary and attempted burglary offending on three of the five days.
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Evidence during the trial included DNA analysis, fingerprint examination, DNA analysis, CCTV footage and phone records.
In his judgment, Justice Mossop said the burglars were one person, with the crowbar and the angle grinders reinforcing that likelihood.
He said numerous physical features of the offender connected him to one or more of the incidents.
"What little can be seen of the burglar's face is consistent with the appearance of Mr Williams-Savage," Justice Mossop said.
The judge also said the consistency of the GPS tracking data and phone records were consistent with his involvement in the offending as it had "a clear association with Mr Williams-Savage".
He said the Toyota Echo and the number plates being in Williams-Savage's possession showed that he was involved in the incidents and that he was a principal offender rather than having some lesser role.
"The control of the car associated with subsequent offending not only ties Mr Williams-Savage to that later offending but also lends weight to the proposition that he was the burglar rather than having some more peripheral role," Justice Mossop said.
He said that the evidence showed Williams-Savage was the attempted burglar at the beauty salon and the burglar at the pizza shops.
"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the hypothesis that he was somehow involved in the incidents but in a way which did not involve himself being the burglar has been excluded," Justice Mossop said.
"The series of connections to the offending, the nature of those connections and the similarity of appearance between Mr Williams-Savage and the burglar are, in my view, collectively sufficient to exclude that hypothesis beyond reasonable doubt."
Williams-Savage will be sentenced at a later date.
Another man was acquitted of two charges relating to the incident in Fyshwick.
