Three years’ jail but immediate parole

A GETAWAY driver involved in a violent Varsity Lakes home invasion has been sentenced to three years in jail.

Cale Burgess pleaded guilty to a November 2013 burglary, armed in company with actual violence, in the Southport District Court yesterday.

The plea of guilty was en- tered on the basis Burgess should have been aware those he was with were armed, not that he committed the robbery.

Defence barrister Dave Funch told the court Burgess, 20, was not the “main offender” and had just turned 17 at the time he committed the offence.

The court heard Burgess waited in the car during the home invasion where a man was hit with a tyre iron but had only committed the crime because his mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer and he had “gone off the rails”.

Burgess was released on parole immediately.