Michael Tasker convicted of stealing Louis Vuitton
Tasker’s attorney Thomas Spohr said there was no evidence either way and it was the “elephant in the room”.
“My instructions only go as far as Mr Tasker being unable to return the items or compensate the victims,” he said.
The Louis Vuitton store on George Street, Sydney.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
According to the agreed facts, Tasker was first seen on CCTV at 2:24 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2022, entering an elevator and then attempting “by various means, including a magnetic card and a screwdriver” to enter the three-story Louis Vuitton store reach.
A second magnetic card opened a side door on King Street. To get to the storage room, Tasker used two screwdrivers to break open a middle door with a PIN code.
Tasker stuffed nearly 100 luxury items into two trash cans. Credit: NSW Police
“At 3.41 a.m. the perpetrator entered the storage room,” it says in the case. “He put on gloves and searched some of the goods.”
A minute later he left. At 4:29 a.m., Tasker “entered the premises again, went into the workshop and began taking items from the display and returning them to the bins he had brought with him.”
“At 4:41 a.m. he wheeled the garbage cans into the elevator to level one,” the facts read. “He left 70 King Street at 4:42 a.m. and at 4:45 a.m. he was caught walking down King Street with two red trash cans.”
Prosecutor William Bruffey claimed Tasker made “several incursions” into the luxury store to harvest as much as possible after realizing it had been “quite a fluke”.
Tasker’s attorney argued that the back-and-forth appeared to indicate a lack of forethought or planning and that he “didn’t find a way to get any things done.”
“He seems to have gone off to get the bins,” Spohr said, adding that it did not appear that Tasker intended to commit a crime of the magnitude that ultimately emerged.
One of the Louis Vuitton handbags found owned by Michael Tasker.
Tasker’s punishment included stealing dozens of Lenovo laptops at Torrens University in Ultimo, where he took a magnetic card from an unsuspecting receptionist one afternoon in December 2021 and later broke into the IT room.
He made three trips that night and transported 78 boxes with a trolley. The following night he captured another 21 laptop boxes and 20 Apple products.
A third incident related to the theft of three computers, an iPhone and three credit cards from a law firm in Martin Place during the lunch break in December 2021 has been considered. Tasker used one of the credit cards to spend nearly $300 on cigarettes.
The judge noted that he had previously sentenced Tasker to a maximum of three years and six months in prison for various offenses, but the offenses tried in court were “far more serious”.
“The offender is old enough and supposedly smart enough to understand that continuing these types of crimes will only result in longer prison terms,” Blackmore said.
From his earlier ruling, the judge said Tasker described himself as the “black sheep” of his family and told a psychologist that he had been addicted to heroin since he was 20. Tasker’s mother was in court for the conviction.
Tasker received a 25 percent rebate for his guilty plea. The judge recommended him long-term inpatient probationary drug rehabilitation, to which he will be eligible beginning July 2027.
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