MAN ALLEGED TO HAVE HAD TWO CRACKS AT COFFEE SHOP

POLICE allege the man who flashed his behind at CCTV cameras while holding up an Ormeau coffee shop with a hammer at the weekend broke into the same shop two months earlier.

Michael John Sullivan, 24, cried when he appeared in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday charged with one count each of breaking and entering and armed robbery.

He wiped his eyes and sniffed during the proceedings following his arrest yesterday morning when police found stolen cash drawers stuffed in wheelie bins at his house.

In an unusual move, defence lawyer Lisa Searing, applied for bail for just one week. “He has asked for one week so he can spend time with his four-year-old daughter,” she said.

Ms Searing said Sullivan’s daughter was visiting from New Zealand for one week.

Magistrate Andrew Sullivan refused bail and said he should have no special treatment.

“No person who enters a store with a weapon deserves any mercy or leniency,” he said.

Police allege on Sunday morning Sullivan, armed with a hammer, threatened two workers at Zarraffa’s coffee shop in Ormeau and ordered them to give him cash.

He allegedly took the cash drawers containing $636.

Sullivan was allegedly wearing a hi-vis shirt and white fabric covering his face.

Police allege they found the cash drawers in the wheelie bin at his Ormeau home.

The clothes were also found in his home.

Police also allege Sullivan and another person broke into the same Zarraffa’s through a window two months earlier.

The pair then allegedly tried to take the safe from the back room.

Their attempts were unsuccessful and the pair fled.

Sullivan will next appear in court on May 8.