Teens pull knives on resident

TWO Lockyer Valley teens pulled knives on a startled resident when they were disturbed during a brazen midnight burglary, a court has heard.

Townson man Peter Craig Lambert, 19, who the court heard was employed at a successful Beaudesert stables, pleaded guilty in Ipswich District Court on Thursday to six offences.

They included attempted robbery in company while armed with a knife, burglary in company by way of break, assault with intention to steal, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, stealing and receiving tainted property.

The court heard the offences all occurred at Gatton about midnight on April 29 last year.

Lambert and his co-defendant, Grantham’s Mitchell Talyn Schroen, 19, broke into a house containing four people.

When they were disturbed in the kitchen by one of the residents the duo armed themselves with knives and demanded cash and the keys to vehicles while pointing the blades at the resident, who replied there were only “poor people” living in the house.

Lambert and Schroen fled when the resident hollered for his roommate.

In the nearby streets, they discovered a vehicle with its keys still in the ignition which they used to travel to Schroen’s to sleep.

That is where police discovered them the following day, Lambert with a mobile phone taken from the stolen car in his pocket.

The pair were also discovered in possession of bankcards reported stolen the previous day.

Defence counsel Philippa Zande told the court her client was in a stable relationship, had good work at the stables and solid family support.

She conceded he continued to struggle with his cannabis addiction.

“He wants to do the right thing into the future,” she said.

Lambert received the same orders as Schroen, who was sentenced on June 15 this year on all counts bar the stealing: 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two-and-a-half years, and two years’ probation.

Convictions were automatically recorded.