Modern Day 'Pirate' Sent to the Brig

by Shelley Hodgson/News.com.au on 7 Jun 2006 A Modern-day pirate who sailed to Tasmania aboard a $350,000 luxury yacht that he had stolen is jailed for at least nine months.

David James Appleby, 41, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of theft and five firearms offences. The thefts relate to about $680,000 of property stolen over almost 11 years.

Appleby's booty from the spree included a $42,000 Mazda MX6 car stolen in 1994, driven for 1½ days and then stored in a factory, a $25,000 caravan, a $63,000 cruise boat and trailer, a $45,000 Bobcat and $70,000 Land Rover Discovery.

The spree culminated in Appleby, of Patterson Lakes in Victoria, stealing the 13.4m yacht Premier Cru from Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron on January 31, 2005.

Premier Cru was co-owned by liquor baron Philip Murphy and friend Rob Hampson.

The County Court was told Appleby had been suffering from bipolar disorder for eight or nine years but that it was misdiagnosed as depression. Anti-depressant medication only exacerbated his condition, the court heard.

Judge Leo Hart said yesterday he accepted Appleby's actions were impulsive and that he was seriously psychiatrically disturbed when he stole the yacht.

Judge Hart said that, given the medical and psychiatric evidence, he accepted it was more likely Appleby's crimes were influenced by his mental condition than by greed.

Appleby, an experienced sailor, got in an inflatable dinghy with his dog and paddled out to the luxury yacht, hot-wiring it and motoring out into Bass Strait.

He said in his police interview that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision when he was depressed and contemplating suicide, thinking about jumping off the boat in the middle of Bass Strait, but decided his dog and the yacht would be lost.

He sailed it through one of the worst storms to hit southeastern Australia in some years and finally anchored in Port Sorrell in Tasmania.

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