Ballarat mother given more jail time after car theft spree

Kandice Smith, 30, appeared at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a string of offences in early 2023.

Smith and a male co-accused took part in car thefts and burglaries beginning in March 2023, after the pair stole a Ford Ranger from an address in Ararat.

Throughout March, the couple continued their offending in Maldon, Reservoir, Dunnstown and Melbourne's CBD. The crime spree included seven car thefts, two burglaries and one attempted car theft.

The pair were two of many arrested as part of a Western Crime Squad operation, Operation Viper, which police said spanned from Cobram in the north to Colac in the south, and from Horsham to Melbourne's inner city suburbs.

Smith and her male co-accused were nabbed on March 21, 2023, after selling stolen jewellery from a burglary in Dunnstown to a gold seller on Swanston Street.

Police saw the pair leave the gold sellers in a stolen car, and followed them to the Highpoint Shopping Centre, where they swooped in an arrested them.

At Monday's hearing, a lawyer acting for Smith sought a sentence which combined prison time with a community corrections order, as opposed to a non-parole sentence.

Magistrate Guillaume Bailin called the thefts "brazen and unsophisticated" and fuelled by drug use.

"You have been an active participant during the offending," the magistrate said.

"There was a flagrant disregard for the community's property or anyone else."

Smith was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment, with 194 days reckoned as already being served.

She was also placed on an 18 month community corrections order, requiring mental health and drug addiction treatment.

Had she pleaded not guilty, and was found guilty, Magistrate Bailin said Smith would have been given a two year prison sentence with a 16 month non-parole period.