More jail time for Yokine home invader Jordan Christian Catania for perjury over stolen goods case

A tow truck driver already behind bars over his involvement in a terrifying home invasion has been given more jail time for committing perjury by fabricating evidence when he took the stand over another crime. Jordan Christian Catania was on trial accused of possessing stolen or unlawfully obtained property — a FlyMarker engraver — in May 2020 when he presented into evidence falsified screenshots of a Gumtree advertisement and conversations with a seller. Catania was convicted of the charge and fined $800 in Perth Magistrates Court, but police were suspicious of his claims so served an order on Gumtree to produce the advertisement and a copy of the message exchange. It was discovered the screenshots could not have been taken in January 2019 as they were timestamped, and which Catania confirmed in his evidence, but could have only been taken at earliest a couple of days before his trial. Defence lawyer Sam Vandongen SC said Catania, who pleaded guilty to perjury and knowingly using fabricated evidence with intent to mislead a court, said his client was young at the time, aged 20, under a great deal of stress and exercised a “gross lack of judgment”. Mr Vandongen said he had another lawyer at the time and when he told them that he got the item from Gumtree, which he said was the truth, the lawyer said “it would be better if you had the messages”. He said Catania misinterpreted that to be a suggestion that he “mock up the Gumtree messages”. Two days before the trial, Catania recreated the Gumtree advertisement and what he recalled was said in the messages. “What he created was entirely fictitious in the sense that he didn’t communicate with anyone on that date in January 2019,” he said, adding his conduct aggravated what he had done in the first place, which should have been resolved quickly with a fine. Sentencing Catania, Judge Michael Gething referred to a letter written by him in which he detailed he had just started his tow truck business and was taking steroids which caused his “thinking capacity” to be “all over the place”. Catania also said he did not realise how serious the justice system was and had since grown up and realised what he was missing out on in custody — including the birth of his second child. His business was also at risk of collapsing. The 22-year-old was already serving a three-year and two-month sentence for his involvement in a violent home invasion in Yokine, in which he used an angle grinder to crack open a safe while the occupants were being held hostage. He was not part of the initial break-in but was called in to help after the juvenile burglars’ equipment failed to open the safe. Judge Gething ordered Catania should serve an extra four months on top of his existing sentence, bringing the jail term to three years and six months. That means he will first become eligible for parole after serving half the sentence in November next year.