DNA was taken after an attempt to hot-wire a vehicle in a car park off Russell Street, police say.
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The man who was forensically matched with the DNA tried to break into a Lambert Street unit less than three months later, Bathurst Local Court has heard.
Matthew Louis Mackay, 39, of Bannerman Crescent, Kelso, was in the court via audio-visual link on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 to be sentenced for attempting to steal a motor vehicle and attempting to break and enter a dwelling with the intent to steal.
Police documents before the court said a Kia Sportage, owned by an aged care organisation in Bathurst, was locked and parked in a public car park adjacent to Kohlhoff Way, Bathurst at approximately 9am on September 6, 2023.
Later that day, it was discovered that the rear driver-side window had been smashed.
On inspection, it was found that the steering column had been exposed in an attempt to hot-wire the vehicle, according to the police documents.
Forensic officers attended the scene on September 9, 2023 and collected DNA samples from the exposed wiring and the top horn area of the steering wheel.
The samples were sent to the Forensic and Analytical Science Service for analysis.
On September 24, the results from the forensic analysis returned a match to Matthew Mackay.
In relation to the second charge, police documents said a man living in Lambert Street locked and secured his residence at about 12.30pm on November 24, 2023, was away for a couple of days and returned around 8pm on November 26, 2023.
On November 25, Mackay attempted to break into the property, according to the police documents.
Communications between Mackay and a person described as a co-conspirator are detailed in the police documents, including Mackay mentioning putting on gloves and stowing his phone in his pocket and the co-conspirator asking if he gets nervous or enjoys the adrenaline.
At one stage, Mackay says he needs to be quiet and mentions there are security cameras in the back.
According to the police documents, Mackay attempted to force entry into the Lambert Street premises, but was thwarted when an unknown person drove into the unit complex, prompting him to flee.
He texted the co-conspirator: "I just got chased as soon as I got the door open."
The co-conspirator replied: "So you didn't get in."
Mackay responded: "I'm not sure what or who pulled into the driveway, but I wasn't sticking around lol."
When the man living at the Lambert Street property returned, he noticed the rear door of his unit was damaged.
There was a footprint on the door and damage to the doorframe itself, according to the police documents.
The police documents detail a further conversation between Mackay and the co-conspirator on November 28, 2023 and then a conversation the next morning in which Mackay tells the co-conspirator he was dressed in all black and had his tools and was ready to "rock and roll".
This came after Mackay had attempted to call the co-conspirator four times earlier in the morning.
Mackay and the co-conspirator were arrested at about 12.35pm on November 29, 2023 and were taken into custody, according to the police documents.
In a subsequent search of Mackay's residence at Bannerman Crescent, police said they found housebreaking implements and a black face covering.
In court
Mackay appeared in Bathurst Local Court via audio-visual link from prison.
Jimil Amiri from the Director of Public Prosecutions said Mackay was already serving a sentence of imprisonment which isn't due to expire until February 2026, so any sentence would have to end before that date.
Mackay's non-parole period for that sentence had ended in mid-2023.
Under the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act, the local court may not impose a new sentence of imprisonment to be served consecutively (or partly concurrently and partly consecutively) with an existing sentence of imprisonment if the date on which the new sentence would end is more than five years after the date on which the existing sentence began.
Solicitor Alex Miller said the court had a report about Mackay's background which showed that he was subject to early disadvantage, had early interactions with drug use and had spent a "significant quantity of time in custody".
The court was asked to consider the more than one year and two months that Mackay had spent in custody "referable to these matters".
Having summarised the police documents about the two incidents, Magistrate Gemma Slack-Smith said she had accepted that Mackay had "spent a significant number of years of his life in custody" and said there were "matters of disadvantage that have been raised".
She said a comprehensive report produced on Mackay in November 2024 "provides, really, a tragic detail of Mr Mackay's childhood".
Noting that any sentence needs to be imposed wholly concurrently with Mackay's current sentence, Ms Slack-Smith said she proposed to deal with the matters before her by way of time served.
For attempting to steal a motor vehicle and for attempting to break and enter a dwelling with the intent to steal, Ms Slack-Smith convicted Mackay of each charge and imposed a term of imprisonment of one year, two months and eight days, back-dated to November 29, 2023.
