Tools stolen from Thurgoona welfare agency were found in man's home

It had taken almost three years for Christopher Shaun Beswick to front Albury Local Court.

Part of that, prosecutor Sergeant Nicole Peacock said on Tuesday, was because Beswick clearly had been hiding from the law.

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But the court heard that Beswick had only been released from a Victorian jail three months ago, having spent 16 months behind bars.

The tools, including a range of gardening appliances, were pinched from Mercy Connect in 2018.

While Beswick was not charged over the theft, he did land a charge of goods in personal custody suspected of being stolen.

Albury Highway Patrol officers had gone to his Union Road home on the evening of April 15, 2018, over a traffic offence.

They found that Beswick was living in a shed out the back, in which tools valued at $5237 were recovered along with $1000 in various items from a North Albury real estate agency.

Those break-ins happened between April 13 and 15.

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But Beswick, now 41, was charged over a break-in on March 7, 2019, during which he stole a laptop computer, two computer tablets and jewellery valued at $2000 from a Lavington house that he got into after using a jemmy bar to force open the front door.

Defence lawyer Mitchell Irwin told magistrate Richard Funston that Beswick's offending was caused by an illicit drug addiction, though he had now been been drug-free for almost two years.

He urged Mr Funston not to impose full-time jail on the charges, to which Beswick pleaded guilty.

Instead, he suggested an intensive corrections order served in the community, but only once Beswick met NSW residence requirements.

Mr Irwin said Beswick remained on a community corrections order in Victoria.

Sergeant Peacock strongly opposed anything other than full-time jail, pointing out "the fact he was actively hiding from police".

Mr Funston ordered a sentence assessment report, adjourning the case to April 14.

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