I don’t know how much heroin costs per ounce. I hope it’s more than baby formula. If it’s less, it’ll completely eff my sense of reality.

In December 2017 and April 2018 a man from Corio, Australia, stole 67 tins of baby formula from supermarkets in Portarlington, Drysdale and Eltham. The retail value of this much formula was A$2,345.00 (the value on the China-driven black market may be as much as A$13,500!)

The offender was charged with four counts of theft and one of obtaining property by deception, as well as certain bail offences. The Crimes Act 1958 (Vic.), §81(1) provides that –

A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains property belonging to another, with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).

The offender was dealt with in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court. His lawyer submitted that he had committed the thefts to fund a heroin addiction. He had been gainfully employed from his release from prison for another offence in 2012 until he suffered a back injury in 2016.

Mellas M sentenced the offender to two months imprisonment.

Police v Wright (2018) Geelong Advertiser, 25 May 2018, p.7