The brazen thief who casually walked into a wedding venue and stole thousands of dollars from a wishing well has revealed the reason he did it.
Leigh Webber was caught on camera crashing a wedding in Victoria and fleeing with $3,700 from the newlywed’s gift pool.
Webber claimed he never intended to target the happy couple, who were celebrating their reception at the Jack Rabbit Vineyard, insisting he was hoping to reclaim a gift he and his wife had contributed to the wedding earlier in the day.
Leigh Webber (pictured) will serve two months behind bars for crashing a vineyard wedding and speaking with guests before fleeing with about $3700 of the newlyweds’ cash gifts
However, it wasn’t until after, he says, that he realised he’d in fact attended the wedding across the road at Terindah Estate, the Herald Sun reported.
‘What I was getting back was my money that I’d put in,’ he said.
‘(But) I went to the wrong wedding … I wasn’t targeting these people.’
Webber fronted Geelong Magistrates’ Court where he was sentenced to two months imprisonment.
The movie-style robbery was caught on CCTV footage and showed the man walking through the venue at Jack Rabbit Winery, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.
The brazen thief (pictured) casually walked into Jack Rabbit Vineyard wedding venue, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, and stole thousands of dollars from a wishing well
The wishing well gifts (pictured), which had money in white envelopes, were never recovered however the plumber was ordered to repay $3700 to the newlyweds as well as a $900 fine
‘I think I even remember seeing a clip of it on the television,’ The Geelong Magistrates’ Court magistrate Ann McGarvie said according to the Geelong Advertiser.
The court heard Webber had previously stolen from a dead man in 2013 before he committed the ‘extraordinarily low act’.
The wishing well gifts, which had money in white envelopes, were never recovered however the plumber was ordered to repay $3700 to the newlyweds as well as a $900 fine.
The 41-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to the theft, used a tool from his white ute to force open the box.
The robbery was caught on CCTV (left and right) showing man walking through a venue which sparked national attention where even the magistrate recalled seeing incident on television
CCTV footage released by Geelong Police earlier this year revealed the man reached into the padlocked wishing well at the coastal venue’s foyer before 11pm and pocketed the cash.
But the bride and groom only realised they had been robbed about $4000 at the end of the night on March 3, 2018.
‘He was as cool as a cucumber. He walked in, he even chatted to the guests,’ Jack Rabbit Vineyard owner Lyndsay Sharp previously told Nine News.
The bride and groom (pictured) only realised they had been robbed about $4000 at the end of the night
After police released the jaw dropping footage, Geelong senior constable Bradley Johnson said they believed Webber had gone to the wrong wedding reception.
‘He (realised) he was at the wrong one and thought while he was there he might as well take some cash,’ he said.
‘It was like a scene out of Wedding Crashers … It was pretty brazen. I think alcohol gave him the confidence to do it.’
The court heard Webber had previously stolen from a dead man in 2013 before he committed crime in March 2018 after using tool from white ute (pictured) to force open the box