A man who conspired to rob the Taylors Lakes Hotel and took part in two armed robberies in Fawkner in 2014 has had his prison sentence reduced on appeal.
Andi Younan was sentenced in the County Court in July, 2016, to six years and eight months imprisonment for his part in the three crimes in July 2014.
He had that reduced to five years and five months last week in the Supreme Court after successfully arguing the original sentence was manifestly excessive.
On July 26, 2014, Younan and two unknown accomplices drove a stolen Ford Ranger to the Meadow Inn Hotel in Fawkner and stole $1800, threatening staff with a rifle and knife. The offence was captured on CCTV.
Police fitted the Ford Ranger with a tracking and listening device on July 31, 2014, and the next day they heard Younan and another man planning to rob the Taylors Lakes Hotel with a sawn-off shotgun soon after its 5am closing time.
The pair arrived in the hotel carpark soon after 5am but found the hotel closed. They proceeded to the Meadow Inn Hotel and performed another armed robbery, this time making off with $1200 in cash.
The pair went to Younan’s girlfriend’s house, where police executed a search warrant later that day and arrested Younan.
The original County Court trial heard Younan was affected by methylamphetamine at the time of the offences and was undergoing a wholly suspended sentence of 12 months imprisonment for arson and driving offences.
In resentencing, Justices Pamela Tate, Michael Croucher and Robert Redlich halved the prison time associated with the aborted Taylors Lakes Hotel robbery on the basis that the planning of that offence was carried out during the second Fawkner robbery.
“By imposing an identical sentence for the conspiracy as for the subsequent armed robbery, the judge was at risk of doubly punishing Younan,” the justices said.
“In our view, the [County Court] judge was in error in imposing the same sentence for the conspiracy offence as that for the carrying out of the armed robbery when the armed robbery took place so quickly after departure from the original target.”
Younan must serve a minimum sentence of three years and six months.
