Thief who stole car with sleeping child in back seat jailed
Posted
A 32-year-old man has been jailed for stealing a car containing a three-year-old boy sleeping in the back, sparking one of Perth's biggest police searches.
The theft in December last year led to a massive air and land search with police also taking the unusual step of sending a text message to more than 250,000 members of the public asking for their help.
The car was found about two hours later by a woman who had gone searching for the boy after hearing about the theft.
Today, Ricky John Hard pleaded guilty to charges of stealing a motor vehicle and endangering the life, health and safety of the boy.
The Perth Magistrates Court heard Hard "opportunistically" stole the car, which had been left in the driveway of a house on Westminster Street, behind a closed gate.
The boy's parents had left the engine running because they wanted the air conditioning on for him while he slept.
Hard drove the car through the gates, but when he realised the child was in the back, he abandoned it, with the keys in the ignition and all the windows up.
Child 'could have suffered greatly'
Prosecutor Neil Regan said when the boy was found he was in a "distressed and dishevelled" state and was dehydrated.
Hard's lawyer Marco Tedeschi said at the time his client, a father of two, had only recently been released from jail, and he took the car because he was late for an appointment.
Mr Tedeschi said when he realised the boy was in the back he panicked and abandoned the vehicle, but did not let anyone know the boy's whereabouts because he feared would be sent back to prison.
Chief Magistrate Steven Heath told Hard he had an obligation to ensure the safety of the child and it was fortunate he had suffered no long-term injury.
"You assumed the car would be found quickly, but that isn't always the case ... the potential was that the child could have suffered greatly."
Hard, who appeared via video link from Acacia prison, is already serving a jail sentence for dishonesty offences, and Magistrate Heath ordered the six-month term be imposed beginning at the end of that term, in September.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, perth-6000
