Aaron Maley Eades: Seven years and $2000 in fines for stealing over $34,000 in cash and property across WA

An Albany man who has spent more than half his life in custody has been jailed for another seven years after he was sentenced for stealing $34,000 in cash and property. Appearing via video link from Albany Regional Prison, Aaron Maley Eades was sentenced for 17 charges in Perth District Court on September 19 and a further 24 charges in Albany Magistrates Court on September 22. The 38-year-old was found guilty of 41 theft and burglary charges, some in circumstances of aggravation, in a long list of offences committed during stealing sprees between October 2021 and January 2022. Eades, sometimes jointly with co-offender Eugene Eades, stole a total of $3600 in cash, approximately $30,635 in property and four vehicles. The offences were committed at businesses and residential properties in the Perth metropolitan suburbs of Kalamunda, Thornlie, Mundaring, Rockingham, Bentley, West Perth, Beckenham, East Victoria Park, Warnbro, Coogee, City Beach, Wembley Downs and Bibra Lake, as well as in the Great Southern towns of McKail, Kendenup, Woodanilling, Lower King Porongurup, and King River. In one instance on October 10, 2021, the resident was home when Eades entered the property and proceeded to rummage through several rooms, taking items as he went. When the victim came face-to-face with him in the laundry, Eades fled the scene through an unlocked side gate. Three days later, Eades entered the premises of Thingz Rockingham by a rear staff-only door and was captured on CCTV stealing personal effects valued at $1650, as well as bank cards which he later used to fraudulently purchase items valued at just over $250. Eades was located and arrested on January 6, 2022. During sentencing at his District Court appearance, Judge Charlotte Wallace said Eades’ offending was obviously “planned in nature”, describing the crime spree as “opportunistic” but “persistent offending conduct”. “The offending clearly involved an invasion of the privacy and safety of the victims in their own home and it also had an adverse impact on them and their sense of security,” she said. “When somebody’s residence is violated in that way, it always involves an invasion of the privacy and safety of the victim in their own home, whether they’re there or not.” In Albany Magistrate’s Court, police prosecutor Sgt Matt Hartfield said the prosecution felt imprisonment was the most appropriate outcome, pointing to the string of offences committed by Eades just two weeks after his release on parole in 2021. Eades, clearly frustrated, asked the magistrate for permission to speak and went on to detail the challenges he had experienced throughout his life, asking that the prison sentence not exceed seven years. He said his life had changed before his eyes when he appeared as a witness to the Stirling Terrace brawl, a shocking melee between two groups that broke out in the Albany CBD in the early hours of July 18, 2021, which ended when former WAFL star Russell Wynne was struck by a vehicle. Magistrate Dianne Scaddan said she was “well aware of what happened on Stirling Terrace” but had to deal with the string of “property-related offending” in front of the court. “There’s nothing simple about stealing and it always has a cost to the community,” she said. “The property is unlikely to ever be recovered, and stealing causes distress to victims who then have to cancel their cards and attempt to retrieve their money back.” Eades was sentenced to a total of six years and four months in Perth District Court and five years and four months imprisonment in Albany Magistrates Court to be served simultaneously with his District Court sentencing. He also received an additional eight months for the burglary at Thingz Rockingham, amounting to a total of seven years jail, and $2000 in fines. Magistrate Scaddan said she had to deliver a sentence that was “not crushing” to Eades, who has spent approximately 20 years in custody. Eades was made eligible for parole by both courts.