A St Albans man who was sentenced to jail for his role in an attempted aggravated burglary at St Albans has failed in his bid to have his sentence reduced.
Neok Mongrag was sentenced in the County Court in February to two years and four months prison after pleading guilty to taking part in an attempted break-in at a St Albans home, car theft and breaking bail conditions.
During an earlier hearing, the court heard that about 1.40am on March 31, 2017, Mongrag and five other men stole a Lexus from a property in Caroline Springs, before proceeding to a house in St Albans.
CCTV footage at the house shows Mongrag was armed with a stick and a brick. He used the brick to smash the glass window beside the front door.
Mongrag and his five accomplices, also armed, tried to force their way into the house, while the three occupants resisted by leaning against the front door.
They were showered with broken glass in the process. Three windows of the house were broken, while a cabinet inside was damaged by a brick thrown through one of the windows.
The attempted break-in lasted for about a minute before all six men fled in the stolen car.
At the time of the offence, Mongrag was serving two probation orders. A condition of one of the orders was that he not leave his place of residence between the hours of 9pm and 6am, unless in the company of a parent.
Mongrag was appealing the length of his sentence, claiming his youth at the time of the offence was not given enough weight, and that he had received harsher penalties than others involved.
Mongrag was 18 at the time of the offence, and a number of his co-offenders were dealt with in the children’s court.
However, Supreme Court justices Robert Osborn, Phillip Priest and Emilios Kyrou agreed with the original sentence, saying it was “a particularly merciful sentence”.
“[Mongrag] in the dead of night, in the company of several males armed with makeshift weapons, mounted a violent and terrifying attack on the home of the innocent victims – one of whom in her victim impact statement described waking to a ‘nightmare’ in which she thought she and the other occupants would lose their lives,” they said.
“Conduct such as the applicant’s cannot be tolerated. It must be denounced in the strongest terms.
“Other like-minded individuals need to know that similar conduct will attract severe punishment.
“The applicant’s offending was premeditated and calculated. It was not the product of a spontaneous or rash decision, born of a youthful lack of insight or self-control. It was not driven by immaturity. It was purposeful and cold-blooded.”
Mongrag will be eligible for parole after one year and four months served.
