Spits, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft, having stolen two speedboats from Bundalong, along with one charge of handling stolen goods, having brought another two boats stolen from Mulwala into Victoria.
Mifsud, 45, pleaded guilty to four counts of handling stolen goods, having helped Spits store all four stolen boats.
Prosecutor David Gray told the County Court hearing two Malibu Wakesetter boats valued at a combined $250,000 were stolen from Melbourne St, Mulwala, on January 26 and 27, 2020, which Spits would subsequently transport to Victoria.
Mr Gray asserted Spits was “directly involved” in stealing the boats in Mulwala, but could not be charged with the offence by Victorian Police as it occurred in NSW.
It was further heard Spits stole a $135,000 Malibu Wakesetter — belonging to 2015 V8 Supercars champion Mark ‘Frosty’ Winterbottom — from a house in Bundalong on February 25, 2020. Mr Winterbottom shared images of the boat on social media, with a number of parties recognising a “distinctive” White Land Cruiser trayback ute belonging to Spits.
A fourth boat, a $140,000 Malibu Wakesetter, was stolen from a different house in Bundalong on February 26.
Simultaneous raids were executed on Spits’s Echuca address and Mifsud’s Echuca-based LWM Panels business on February 28, locating a Range Rover at Spits’ house that had allegedly been used to tow one of the stolen boats from Mulwala, while the boat stolen on February 26 was located at Mifsud’s workshop.
Mifsud would then take police to nearby storage sheds where the other three boats were found.
Spits’s barrister Zarah Garde-Wilson told the court Spits was bankrupt at the time of the offending, and had moved from Melbourne to Echuca to escape pressure from creditors.
She attributed the offending to “dire financial circumstances and significant cocaine use” as well as his declining mental health.
She asked Judge Sarah Dawes to impose a term of imprisonment along with a corrections order.
Mifsud’s barrister Michael Turner said his client was of “impeccable character but for these charges” and submitted Spits was “the architect of this enterprise”.
He said Mifsud was not involved in the decision to steal any boats nor any actual thefts.
He said Mifsud had been asked to provide storage sheds and did so and the circumstances of the two accused were “chalk and cheese”, stating his client was financially secure, owned his own business and did not use illicit drugs.
Mr Turner added Mifsud had “no real need for a financial injection”.
Ms Garde-Wilson “strongly rejected” the assertion Spits was the architect.
Mr Turner asked that Mifsud, who has no criminal history, be sentenced to a corrections order.
The court heard Spits had previously been convicted of crimes including theft and handling stolen goods, although no relevant convictions had occurred since 2010.
Mr Gray submitted an appropriate sentence for each would be a term of imprisonment with a non-parole period, citing a need for general deterrence in the community.
He said the prosecution did not accept Mifsud was a “passive player”, although he added it could not say he was involved in planning to steal the boats or the theft.
Mr Gray, who noted an “inescapable inference” the boats were stolen as a “rebirthing exercise”, said Spits could be seen as “at the head of the operation”, and added “if they were not stolen they wouldn’t be able to rebirthed.
Judge Dawes adjourned the matter to consider sentence.
