A 24-year-old Australian man was given a community sentence for stealing multiple high-value bikes in Wollongong using bolt cutters.

A 24-year-old Wollongong man, Noah James Beaton, was sentenced for a series of bike thefts in July 2024, during which he and an accomplice stole multiple high-value bicycles from secured car parks in the city’s CBD using bolt cutters. Surveillance footage captured the crimes, which included a $2,000 mountain bike, and Beaton was arrested after attempting to flee police twice. He had previously been on a community correction order for knife and intimidation offences. Beaton pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated stealing and break and enter. Though imprisonment was required, the court imposed an intensive correction order allowing him to serve his sentence in the community with strict conditions, including drug treatment, 150 hours of community service, and no illicit drug use, with time already served credited.