Wangaratta criminal who stole charity tin told to step up for his son

Joey Styles, 31, has already served many stints behind bars, and was on Friday ordered to serve eight months for his latest offending.

Styles lost $700 on the poker machines at the Old Town and Country pub on October 22 last year, leaving him unable to pay his rent.

He took a charity tin with about $300 in it, which magistrate Ian Watkins said "on any view would be regarded as a low act".

Styles was arrested later that month after driving a stolen car at high speed through Wangaratta, placing school kids and others in danger.

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He also stole a leather jacket and a motorbike worth $10,000 in Melbourne, with neither recovered, stole $40 worth of alcohol, used someone's credit card to buy various goods, and stole a bike from a Wangaratta business.

He called his mother "disgusting names" during another incident before driving erratically near Yarrunga Primary School and assaulted a man on Burke Street.

Mr Watkins said Styles, who has a son, had PTSD from violence he had suffered as a youth.

"It's clear your own childhood was far from a happy one," he said.

"Your life really is consistent with someone who has been exposed to things they shouldn't have been exposed to.

"You don't want to expose (your son) to the same trauma you were exposed to.

"You need to step up and protect your son."

Styles has served 141 days and will undertake a corrections order once released.

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