Summernats grand champion a car theif...

[Raptor]

...so that's how he funded such a nice show car (X-Hilliers XP Coupe)

From The Illawarra Mercury 13/05/2005
http://www.illawarramercury.com/arti...843344923.html

Show car champ jailed
By LOUISE TURK
May 13, 2005



A DAPTO man regarded as one of Australia's best show car enthusiasts was jailed yesterday for his involvement in an Illawarra-based car rebirthing racket.

John David Ritchie - also known as Dave Ritchie - will spend the next two years and three months behind bars after being convicted of multiple car stealing charges.

The 33-year-old unemployed man was part of a crime syndicate which stole dozens of cars across the Illawarra in 2003. They stripped vehicles and torched them in pre-arranged insurance claims or refitted them with new parts and sold them to unsuspecting buyers.

Wollongong District Court heard that Ritchie, of Barellan Ave, was highly skilled in show car restoration and had won titles in Australia's premier street machine event Summernats.

Ritchie is well known among car enthusiasts for his restoration of a two-tone green 1965 Ford XP Falcon coupe.


The $150,000 show car, which took five months to rebuild, has taken out numerous awards at a national and state level.

While Ritchie's talents for car restoration earned him praise and recognition for the restored Ford coupe, his skills were also used for criminal activity.

The court heard that Ritchie was part of a car rebirthing racket which included Stephen Fairall, 25, of Dapto; Scott Field, 33 of Dapto; and Terry Peter Stumbles, of Dapto.

Fairall and Field have been sentenced to prison terms this week for their involvement in the racket. Stumbles will be sentenced today.

Yesterday Judge Joe Phelan said Ritchie - along with co-offenders Fairall and Field - had shown a keen interest and flair for all things mechanical, particularly cars.

"None of these gifts have been the subject of any form of formal training...which would have enabled each of them to have gained employment themselves without stealing other people's property," Judge Phelan said, adding that

written reports revealed Ritchie had a history of being easily led by his peers.

"This seems to be a recurrent theme among each of the offenders so far," the Judge Phelan said.

Ritchie pleaded guilty to attempting to steal from a motor vehicle; two counts of concealing a serious indictable offence; stealing a motor vehicle (a motorcycle and trailer); and stealing a motor vehicle (three motorcycles).

"In light of an established criminal record and matters of dishonesty over some years, and the brazen nature of these offences, and losses involved to various people - including the stealing of bikes for children to be used on holidays - means a prison sentence is inevitable," Judge Phelan said.

He sentenced Ritchie to a three-year jail term with a non-parole period of two years and three months. Ritchie also has been ordered to pay a total compensation bill of $9350 to the owners of the stolen motorcycles.