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A 21-year-old Wendouree man who was involved in a number of burglaries around the Ballarat region has been jailed. Joshua Gribble was on Thursday jailed for 18 months with a non-parole period of 10 months after he pleaded guilty in the Ballarat Magistrates Court to a string of aggravated burglary and theft related charges. The offending, which occurred between November 9, 2015 and April 12, also breached a six-month suspended sentence which was reinstated on Thursday and to be served concurrently. The court heard Gribble, who was on bail at the time, was involved in the theft of three vehicles from the Wendouree and Sebastopol areas. He was also involved in a number of burglaries around Ballarat, including a primary school. Gribble was arrested on May 3 after police found him hiding under a mattress at a Queen Street address. Gribble resisted arrest and when he was at the station he caused $1000 in damages after repeatedly banging his head on the station’s walls. While in the cells he also used his own blood to deface one of the walls. Gribble’s lawyer, David Taminika, said his client admitted hanging around the wrong peers was the major contributing factor to the offending. He said Gribble was making the most of the credit bail program until his photo appeared on a crime related Facebook page, at which time he reverted back to using ice. He added Gribble had come from a difficult background where drugs and criminal activity became normalised. Mr Taminika said it was accepted the offending was “horrible”, but submitted having spent half of 2016 in custody was a significant deterrent. Magistrate Robert Kumar said it was no use putting Gribble on a community corrections order following any prison term. “The parole board is more likely to give him assistance,” he said. “If this man is serious about getting parole, he will have to prove it.” Gribble also had his licence cancelled and he was disqualified from driving for 12 months. But for a guilty plea, Mr Kumar said he would have imposed a two-year jail term. Gribble has served 103 days in pre-sentence detention.

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