A man who held up a Kealba service station with a speargun has been handed a three-year community corrections order.
Sam Wathen pleaded guilty to stealing more than $4000 in cash and cigarettes after threatening a male service station employee with the speargun in the early hours of Friday, December 6, 2013.
The County Court heard in May that the 23-year-old and an accomplice, who was armed with an axe, went into the Kealba BP service station about 4.20am. Wearing a black mask over his face, Wathen yelled at the lone store attendant to take out the till while his accomplice went behind the counter.
Wathen pointed the gun at the attendant and forced him into an adjoining staff room while his accomplice took cigarettes valued at $2200 and about $1900 in cash. As he left the store Wathen told the victim: “Don’t call the police for at least half an hour or I’ll come back.”
Wathen was arrested at his parents’ Essendon home on April 2, 2014 and released. He was charged again on May 22 and served 196 days in custody before he was released on bail.
Wathen pleaded guilty to several armed robbery offences committed between October and December, 2013, in which he wielded a meat cleaver, tomahawk and a hammer at different times.
The court heard that Wathen, a drug user from the age of 19, had been kicked out of the family home just before the armed crime spree began and had used ice on a daily basis during the time of his crimes.
Judge James Parrish took time served in custody into account when he placed him on a three-year community corrections order.
