Time to man up, magistrate tells crime spree duo

KIM WATERS
A magistrate has told two teenagers who joined a gang crime spree in Winchelsea to “man up”.
Ann McGarvie fined 18-year-olds Andrew Bourdouvalis and Jonathon Muffett $1300 and $1012 respectively over their parts in the outbreak of theft, criminal damage and arson.
Bourdouvalis and Muffet, sat quietly in court on Wednesday as their mothers wept behind them.
Police Leading Senior Constable Glenn Abbott told the court Bourdouvalis was involved with three other men and two youths in the theft of a ute on January 18.
The group drove the vehicle to nearby Wurdale Hall whey they preformed “burnouts” before dumping the ute and driving to Geelong to pick up Muffet from his Highton home, Snr Const Abbott said.
One of the alleged offenders decided to “dispose of the evidence”, so they drove back to the ute and pushed it on its side, spilling petrol from the vehicle’s tank.
Snr Const Abbott said Bourdouvalis and Muffet set the vehicle on fire with a flaming, petrol-soaked towel.
Bourdouvalis was also involved in a burglary of Winchelsea Hotel and criminal damage of two homes in the town during January, the court heard.
Snr Cost Abbott said Bourdouvalis’s explanations for the burglary and criminal damage was he “wanted smokes” and “was bored”.
Lawyer Gerard Healy, for Bourdouvalis, blamed the charges on Luke Lamos, who he alleged was the group’s “ringleader”.
“These are young lads led on by one fellow.”
Muffet’s lawyer said her client’s involvement was “extremely limited”.
The group picked up Muffet in Highton to attend a party but instead drove to the stolen ute and handed him the flaming petrol-soaked towel, she told the court.
“He was in the middle of nowhere. He had nowhere to go…he didn’t think about the consequences.”
Ms McGarvie told Bourdouvalis and Muffet they needed to “man up”
She warned both men not to “muck up” again on their “second chance” as she fined them without conviction.