JACK McLean once bragged that he could kill someone and get away with it, because police in the region didn’t speak to each other.
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Little did he know his Wodonga home, where he and other family members organised break-ins and thefts, was bugged and his conversations recorded.
Officers had released snippets of information and footage to the media last year in a bid to identify those involved in a string of burglaries.
The Wodonga County Court on Thursday heard Jack, the ringleader of the group dubbed the T-shirt gang, had dobbed himself in as the driving force of the offending.
Various people inside the Stott Court house had identified themselves through surveillance images released to the media and discussed the crimes they had committed.
“That’s us, but they’ve got nothing,” one said while watching the footage.
The court heard the group were linked to 32 burglaries, but a plea deal meant McLean had been charged in connection to only five.
Further details emerged during Thursday’s hearing, which came a day after McLean pleaded guilty to 17 charges.
He will learn his fate for the offending when he returns to court next Friday.
The court heard his partner Mikaila Garner had been 38 weeks pregnant when she acted as a getaway driver from a break-in at Tallangatta on August 27.
The group had targeted Pixon Automotive and left with at least $2187 cash, but police weren’t far behind.
They caught up with a red Hyundai Getz heading back to Wodonga on the Murray Valley Highway and activated their warning lights before driving alongside the car.
Garner was driving with McLean in the front passenger seat and a youth in the back.
Shoes, gloves and jumpers had been thrown from the vehicle and Garner pulled onto the wrong side of the road on a long sweeping bend, turning a blind corner at high speed.
The court heard there were constant themes to the group’s offending.
They would travel together to a satellite town in the region, steal a vehicle, break into businesses and torch the stolen car when finished.
The disguises often featured dishwashing gloves with T-shirts wrapped around faces with the same type of knot tied at the back.
They would conduct reconnaissance on targets and wait up to a month before striking, generally between 11pm and 6am.
About 20 firearms were stolen during the spree.
