Werribee Men Charged After Forklift Theft and Multi-Vehicle Chase

Two Werribee men are facing Wyndham Magistrates’ Court today after allegedly stealing a forklift and fleeing police across the city’s western suburbs in two stolen vehicles overnight.

Police received a report about 1:45am on Friday, 12 June that offenders were using an angle grinder to force open a gate at a business on Little Boundary Lane in Laverton North.

Officers located the business on a local city camera and observed a truck and a ute leaving the premises. The Police Air Wing then spotted the two vehicles, a Fuso tow truck and a Mitsubishi Triton, travelling in convoy toward Derrimut.

Police allege the duo made a brief stop at a fast-food restaurant on the Western Ring Road before attempting to leave, at which point officers deployed stop sticks near the freeway exit.

Police have used stop sticks on a number of occasions to stop fleeing vehicles across Wyndham, including a pursuit that ended on Boundary Road in Truganina.

Police will allege the driver of the truck then got into the utility, which continued along the Western Highway and Fitzgerald Road before pulling over on the side of Boundary Road in Truganina, where both men were arrested.

Police further allege the Mitsubishi Triton was stolen from a business in Truganina overnight, while the Fuso tow truck was stolen from a business in Derrimut on 11 June.

Motor vehicle theft has been one of Wyndham’s fastest-growing crime categories, with recorded incidents rising sharply in recent years.

A 42-year-old man and a 49-year-old man have each been charged with two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, theft of a forklift, two counts of handling stolen goods, going equipped to steal, and committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.

Both men are Werribee residents and are appearing at Wyndham Magistrates’ Court today.

A Wyndham police crackdown earlier this year saw 35 people arrested across two nights, with the Air Wing playing a key role in tracking stolen vehicles.