A man kicked a hole in a police station interview room and tried to pull out the wiring after crashing into a police vehicle, a court has heard.

Harley Fitzpatrick, 26, formerly of Mooroopna, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to charges including five counts of theft, possessing 1-4 butanediol and two counts of damaging property.

Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Chris Cole told the court, while riding a pushbike, Fitzpatrick collided into the driver’s side door of a police vehicle on Gemmell St, Cobram on June 1.

Police were responding to reports of Fitzpatrick waving a butcher’s knife around while riding the pushbike on the corner of Karook St and Racecourse Rd, when he rode away after they told him to stop.

After the collision, he was arrested and taken to the police station where he was assessed by ambulance officers and declared fit to remain at the station.

However, he became angry and wanted to be admitted to hospital.

He kicked the interview room wall 12 times, causing damage to the plaster, and reached into the wall to try and pull out electrical wiring.

After failing to follow police direction to stop he was pepper sprayed.

During a separate incident in Cobram on July 10, Fitzpatrick did $1500 of damage smashing a large glass panel at Woolworths, causing extensive cracking, and kicked the exit door multiple times, making it inoperable.

This occurred after he kicked the front bonnet of a car during an altercation, doing $500 of damage.

Leading Sen Const Cole told the court Fitzpatrick also stole $68 of items, including a seven-inch filleting knife from Shepparton Kmart on December 19, 2024.

The court heard a staff member told him to put the knife away and leave, which he did after saying “no worries, thanks for being so cool about it”.

Leading Sen Const Cole said Fitzpatrick placed a bottle of 1-4 butanediol under a fence at the intersection of Wyndham and High Sts, Shepparton while loitering around the area before walking into the Shepparton Law Courts on November 6, 2024.

The court heard he stole $3499 of surveillance items from Jaycar Shepparton with a co-accused on January 18, and $100 of items from Ritchies IGA, Numurkah on December 26, 2023.

Fitzpatrick also stole $861.40 of items from Chemist Warehouse in Birralee Village Shopping Centre in Wodonga on May 21, and a $206 bottle of whiskey from a liquor store in the shopping centre on May 22.

He also stole $263 of items from a BP in West Wodonga on May 24.

Fitzpatrick’s defence barrister Nicholas Howard said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, and the motivation for his client’s offending was to fuel his drug addiction of methamphetamines and heroin.

Mr Howard said Fitzpatrick began using drugs as a 14-year-old, but was now clean and in a stable condition after being in custody for the past three months.

Fitzpatrick will be sentenced in December.

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Saturday, 23rd August 2025

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