ATM mugger jailed

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 AN armed man who ambushed a shopping centre customer and threatened to stab him unless he handed over $250 has been sentenced to 2½ years’ jail.

William Cooper, 25, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Hobart on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a count of attempted armed robbery.

Justice Michael Brett said Cooper was wearing a homemade balaclava and was armed with a pair of scissors when he ran to a man using the ATM at a shopping centre saying “give me your money, I want $250 or I’ll stab you” about 9.30pm on December 12, 2017.

The victim was able to knock the scissors from Cooper’s hand “relatively easily” and they struggled on the ground.

“When he told you that he was going to call the police, you ran away,” Justice Brett said. “You were not successful in extracting any money from him.

“Although you claim that your actions were not premeditated, it is obvious that there was a degree of pre-planning involved.

“Your use of the weapon was calculated to cause fear and overbear his resistance, and could, of course, have resulted in much more dire consequences than actually occurred.”

Justice Brett described the crime as “relatively serious”.

He said the victim, who suffered grazes to his knee and hand, did not provide a written impact statement but continued to be “experiencing some understandable effects”.

The court heard Cooper had a difficult childhood and continued to experience ongoing family issues.

“You have had a longstanding problem with the use of drugs and although you have had employment in the past, prior to the commission of this offence, you were homeless and leading a relatively aimless existence,” Justice Brett said.

Justice Brett said Cooper’s lack of prior convictions, cooperation with police and plea psychological of guilty was taken into consideration but did not accept Cooper should be sentenced as a “youthful offender” as suggested by his defence lawyer.

“At 23 years of age, the age you were when you committed this crime, you were old enough and ought to have been mature enough to bear responsibility for your poor decisions,” he said.

Cooper’s sentence was backdated to August 15 this year. He will be eligible for parole once he has served half of the sentence.