Sleeping woman robbed, court told

A TEENAGER was denied bail yesterday after committing a spate of alleged offences including throwing a scooter at a bus window and threatening a retail worker with a screwdriver.

The 17-year-old appeared before a Children’s Court over a number of charges including attempted armed robbery.

The court heard the most recent charges were over an incident on June 12, in which the teenager allegedly entered an elderly women’s home while she was asleep and stole her hand bag, an iPad and jewellery.

The bail hearing heard other alleged offences ranged from punching and kicking a service station worker, to smashing a bus window with a scooter and assaulting a service station worker.

A police informant detailed one incident in which the teenager allegedly threatened a shop worker with a screwdriver.

“On Wednesday, June 14, at 10.30am, the accused along with two co-accused attended the Good as New store on Ryrie St.”

He said they tried to sell an SLR camera to the shop attendant, who became suspicious and asked them to leave.

“The accused and co-accused started to become argumentative and weren’t happy.”

He said the accused pulled out a screwdriver and said “give me your money or I’ll stick ya”.

“The victim backed away fearing he was going to be stabbed. That matter was captured on CCTV footage,” he said.

The police informant told the court he believed the teenager was an unacceptable risk and the home address he had asked to be bailed to was not appropriate.

“On the day the warrant was executed he tried to escape . . . family members tried to usher him out the back door,” he said.

“The people he associates with outside his home — their offending is also escalating,” the officer said.

In denying bail the magistrate said there were no conditions he could put in place that would prevent the teenager from reoffending.

“The worrying thing is that his offending has escalated to the point were people are really being affected,” the magistrate said.

“The entry to the home of an elderly women — one can only imagine what could have happened if she’d woken up and confronted him.”

The teenager was refused bail and remanded into custody to appear before the court on July 12.