Half-baked stab tale

Pizza worker admits robbery claim was all a lie

A NORLANE man who falsely told police he was robbed at knifepoint by masked men has pleaded guilty to two criminal offences.

The court heard Dylan Boyd, 23, wasted nearly 40 hours of investigation time, which cost Victoria Police thousands of dollars by fabricating a detailed story about an armed robbery.

Boyd was employed at Geelong’s Town and Country Pizza on June 12 when he told police a group of up to six masked men followed him and attacked him at knifepoint to steal more than $1800 of the store’s takings.

The court heard Boyd, who pleaded guilty to charges of theft and making a false report to police, told officers he left work at 9.30pm with the store’s takings which he planned to take to a fellow employees’ house for banking.

He said he was on the way to drop off the cash when he was approached by the men and badly wounded.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Alex Good said Boyd told investigating officers he drove around for an hour with stab wounds before he told his girlfriend about the attack. The court heard Boyd’s girlfriend called 000 and police attended but were unable to find the crime scene.

Sen-Constable Good said the next day police spoke to Boyd and looked at his injuries but believed the vertical scratches across his chest were inconsistent with a stabbing.

After more than 39 hours of investigation work, which included re-enacting the reported crime scene, police found Boyd’s reports did not add up and arrested the pizza shop employee.

The court heard Boyd then made full admissions to making up the burglary and stealing the cash for his own benefit.

“In an interview the accused said that over two days he took two envelopes of cash home,” Sen-Constable Good said. He said Boyd told police he “used it on stupid s---, a bit of this a bit of that, smoking and gambling”, the court heard. “He said he’d lost a lot of sleep and 10 kilograms over the (false report) incident and said he came up with the story.”

Sen-Constable Good, who made a $4000 Victoria Police application for restitution, said Boyd had apologised to officers and had been remorseful.

Boyd’s lawyer Sarah Wood said her client had been over- whelmed by his life at the time of theft and thought stealing the cash was “a quick fix”.

“But it obviously wasn’t. He has had to explain everything to his family,” Ms Wood said.

Magistrate Peter Mellas said Boyd had broken the trust of many people by committing the offence. “You stole from someone who relied on your trust, you made things worse by making this report to police,” Mr Mellas said.

Boyd was sentenced to a 12month community corrections order and must complete 50 hours of community work and undergo supervision programs.