
A serial criminal will remain behind bars until March after pleading guilty to a range of offences including stealing and possessing a gel blaster pistol.
Zane Andrew Henderson, 26, of Mayfield, was sentenced in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday after an earlier charge of aggravated burglary was dismissed and substituted for a charge of trespass.
The court heard Henderson had been busted driving in East Devonport with a backpack containing a knife, cannabis and a gel blaster altered to look like a legitimate gun.
He also tested positive for having illicit drugs in his system at the time.
Eight days later Henderson was involved in an incident whereby a person was approached by a group of men in the car park at Cataract Gorge and had what appeared to be a gun pointed at them.
The men then fled the scene, and police later caught up with Henderson who pleaded guilty to offences relating to the incident.
When they caught him he was in possession of a handheld tyre spike.
Henderson was released on bail for the offences, but immediately breached conditions by not being home when police came to check on him.
A month later he trespassed in what he later found to be a family friend's home and took coins and a necklace before returning them.
And then, at the start of May, Henderson stole goods - including cologne, a polo jacket and fish and a potato cake - from several Launceston businesses before stealing a credit card and racking up expenses of $325.39.
The court heard much of the offending by Henderson had been perpetrated as a means of servicing a methylamphetamine addiction.
The matters Henderson was facing had started in early March, just two weeks after he was released from prison for similar offending.
And it was taking into account his prior convictions that saw Magistrate Jackie Hartnett sentenced Henderson to a total of nine months in prison. "There's not much ... in your favour, unfortunately," Ms Hartnett said.
"Sentences to date have not had the desired effect. A previous lengthy sentence didn't act as a deterrent ... you were just released from prison and you should have known better.
[You've been subject to] a drug treatment order, detention and imprisonment ... nothing has caused you to stop offending.
- Magistrate Jackie Hartnett
The court heard Henderson was remanded in custody about a month after his teenage brother died in tragic circumstances and that his imprisonment had added to the distress of his mother.
"Within a short period of time you committed many, many offences that impacted on a number of people," Ms Hartnett said.
Ms Hartnett implored Henderson to recognise that, in the wake of his brother's death, had a responsibility to support his family.
As Ms Hartnett addressed Henderson directly he looked her in the eyes and responded "yes" to all of the statements she was making.
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