A cache of thousands of dollars in suspected stolen property has been discovered only after a car roll-over on the Hume Freeway at South Albury.
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But Melbourne man Luke Haralampidis refused to tell police the story behind the items, though he made some admissions on pleading guilty in Albury Local Court this week.
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The first that police knew of the suspected stolen property was when they arrived at the scene of a crash on the highway near Willowbank Road on January 31 just before 8am.
Haralampidis's car, heading south, had moved into the right lane, veered into the middle of the road and then to the right again, before leaving the road and hitting gravel.
Haralampidis lost control of the car, which traveled about 80 metres down an embankment, rolling a couple of times before landing on the roof.
Witnesses to the crash helped Haralampidis, who had no visible injuries, get out of the wreck.
But his only concern was to retrieve his possessions.
"Witnesses found the driver's behaviour strange, especially due to the car rolling a number of times and the severity of the (crash)," police said.
When police arrived, Haralampidis was sitting on the back of a ute with the bags of goods, which included alcohol and electronics.
Defence lawyer Camille McKay said Haralampidis conceded this was "stolen or unlawfully obtained".
Mr Funston put Haralampidis, 21, on a 12-month conditional release order.
"With that amount of property, there's no way he couldn't be convicted," he said.
"It's especially alarming that someone could be in a car with all this property without any explanation that's acceptable to the court."
