Teen takeaway robber cops punch in the face

A TEENAGER who tried to rob a Chinese takeaway by pretending to have a gun was thwarted by a staff member who punched him in the face, a court has heard.

Isaac Alan Thompson, 19, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to aggravated robbery for stealing the other man’s wallet and phone after bungling the holdup last year.

The court heard Thompson burst into the fast food restaurant at the Hibiscus shopping centre in Leanyer at about 8pm on October 21 with his hand underneath his shirt and pointing his fingers at the victim.

Thompson then said “I have a gun, give me money”, to which the victim replied “What are you going to do, shoot me?”.

When the staffer refused to give him anything, Thompson snatched the victim’s wallet and phone from a table and tried to leave but the other man blocked his way.

The victim grabbed Thompson by the throat and punched him in the face and pushed him over before grabbing him by the collar but he lost his grip and Thompson ran away.

Justice Judith Kelly said he later admitted in text messages that he’d just “done a robbery”.

“You later told a friend ‘I went to the Chinese shop, punched the Asian bloke and took some money’,” she said.

Thompson was also charged with drug possession four days after the botched robbery and his lawyer, Julia Ker, said his history of meth use was the “only explanation” for his offending.

In sentencing Thompson to three years and three months in jail, Justice Kelly noted he had “essentially ignored” his obligations while on bail last year and had shown an “appalling attitude” towards supervision if his sentence were to be suspended.

“You said you weren’t willing to have an approved monitoring device other than when you were in rehabilitation — it’s not up to you what condi- tions are imposed on your conditional release,” she said.

“And you said, quite extraordinarily, that you weren’t really willing to accept a curfew because you wanted to go out at night and party with your friends. That attitude makes it absolutely impossible for me to give you a partly suspended sentence.”

The court heard the victim suffered “bruising and cuts to his knuckles from trying to defend himself”.

Thompson has already spent 21 days in jail for the drug offences and will be eligible for parole after serving a further one year and eight months.

“I went to the Chinese shop, punched the Asian bloke.” I SAAC ALAN THOMPSON