Bunbury man Bryce Graham Heard released from prison after admitting Perth crime spree

A 24-year-old Bunbury man has been released from prison after spending 10 months inside on remand over a spree of trespassing and stealing in Perth and the South West. Bryce Graham Heard was sentenced to a backdated 10-month prison term and fined $3000 by the Bunbury Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after he was convicted of a number of offences including multiple counts of stealing, trespassing, stealing a motor vehicle and gaining a benefit by fraud. The court was told Heard, along with co-offender Robert David Whitbread, embarked on a crime spree that spanned several days in October last year, which saw the pair trespass on multiple carparks within Perth and the South West, breaking into numerous cars and stealing various items including cars, cash, phones, jewellery, headphones, clothes, torches, a tomahawk and knives. During one incident, Heard and Whitbread travelled to Jindalee together in a white Nissan GU Patrol ute that had previous been stolen when they approached a parked silver Volvo S40 sedan. Whitbread smashed the driver’s window and used a set of keys he found in a handbag on the passenger seat to steal the car. The victim, who was in a nearby property, heard the car start and went outside to see her car being driven away with Heard following in the stolen Nissan GU Patrol ute. While she and her partner walked on to the road seeking help, Whitbread and Heard drove back in their respective stolen vehicles, swerving past them at speed. After travelling to Butler and having difficulty closing the driver’s door, Whitbread removed the front number plate from the Volvo and poured fuel on to the car and set it on fire. Whitbread was sentenced to a three-and-a-half year jail term by the Bunbury District Court for his involvement in the spree in June. While Heard was also charged with setting the Volvo on fire and being involved in an aggravated robbery that saw a Madeley man run over while trying to stop Heard and Whitbread from stealing his Ford Focus, the allegations against Heard were dismissed during a District Court hearing. The court was also told Heard used a stolen debit card to purchase various items and was found with five rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition after he was arrested by Joondalup detectives in December last year. In submissions, Heard’s defence counsel Michael Devlin told the court his client accepted responsibility for the offending and acknowledged he would spend a significant amount of time behind bars if he does not grow up. Despite initially being placed on a community-based order for some of the offences, it was found Heard never had the chance to engage with the order because of his arrest and had spent a lengthy period of time in custody on remand, unable to engage in programs or counselling within Bunbury Regional Prison. As a result, the community-based order was ultimately cancelled. In sentencing, Magistrate Linda Keane said while it would have been preferable to have some form of rehabilitative aspect to Heard’s sentence, the charges did not amount to imposing such an order nor an extended jail term with parole eligibility. “There’s nothing there except you,” she told Heard. Along with the 10-month prison term, which was backdated to December 2021, and the fine, Heard was also ordered to pay $500 in court costs.