A Canberra man identified in CCTV footage by Cowra police has been ordered to pay compensation and a warrant issued for his arrest after he failed to pay for petrol at a local fuel station.
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The man, Euan Graham Thomas Stewart, failed to pay for the petrol at the Cowra Shell Service Station on July 1 last year.
Stewart, 21, of Gordon in the ACT, has not answered phone calls from Cowra police about the matter and failed to appear when the matter was listed for determination in the Cowra Local Court this week.
In his absence magistrate Michael O’Brien ordered Stewart pay the service station $63.88 in compensation.
Mr O’Brien noted in court that Stewart had been before the court for other matters since the July 1 offence.
He described the offence as “brazen act of stealing petrol from a petrol station”.
“I’ll issue a warrant,” Mr O’Brien told the police prosecutor, in addition to recording a conviction against Stewart for the offence of obtaining property by deception.
According to the police facts tendered to the court, about 3am on Saturday July 1 Stewart drove a hire car into the Shell Service Station on the Young Road.
He filled the vehicle with 44.39 litres of fuel before driving off.
At no time did Stewart make an attempt to pay for the fuel.
Police were notified of the offence on July 2 and after viewing CCTV footage a Cowra officer was able to identify the offender.
The officer had stopped Stewart and spoken to him about an unrelated matter in the same hire vehicle on June 15.
A number of attempts to contact Stewart by telephone since the offence have been unsuccessful.
