One-armed crowbar bandit cops jail

THREE YEARS FOR HOLDING UP LOCAL PUB

A GLENORCHY man who called himself “the one-armed bandit” has been sentenced to three years in prison for holding up his local pub with a crowbar.

In the Supreme Court in Hobart before Acting Justice Pierre Slicer yesterday, Brett Wayne Richardson, 32, of Glenorchy, pleaded guilty to armed robbery over an early morning incident on October 23.

The disability pensioner robbed the Elwick Hotel on Main Rd, Glenorchy — the second time the pub had been held up in a month.

The court heard Richardson had been at the home of an associate in Claremont when he left about 1.30am.

He took a crowbar from outside the house with him as he and two others got into a car and travelled to Glenorchy.

Richardson went into the pub on his own, entered the gaming area of the hotel, threatened staff members with the crowbar and took more than $3000 in notes from the till and $1 coins from a coin dispenser.

The Crown Prosecutor said one of the staff behind the bar had recognised Richardson, an amputee, as a regular patron who called himself the “onearmed bandit”.

The incident was captured on CCTV. Richardson was found a short time later by police in the car park near the Glenorchy pool.

In an interview at the Hobart Police Station, Richardson initially denied robbing the pub and said he had been in the area to drop off drugs.

He later admitted to holding up the pub and said he had taken ice the day before and wanted cash to buy more drugs.

Victim impact statements from the two staff members involved said they had suffered from disturbed sleep patterns and were anxious about being at work since the robbery.

Richardson had prior convictions for drug, stealing and traffic offences and was subject to three suspended sentences at the time of the robbery.

His lawyer said Richardson had been born with a syndrome which had led to com- plications and resulted in his left arm being amputated just before his 18th birthday.

Acting Justice Slicer said the court accepted there was no violence used in the holdup, but there was no misunderstanding of his intention that “unless he got his way, the crowbar was there as an enforcement tool ... a threat of severe consequences if his demands are not met”.

Richardson was sentenced to three years in prison and will be eligible for parole after serving half that sentence.