Axe man jumps out to rob driver

Open Justice

A man armed with an axe jumped out of bushes as his co-offenders surrounded their victim’s ute, after luring him there on the premise of an “exchange of items”.

It remains unclear exactly what “items” Bryce Karne Paterson and his associates were after on September 20 last year at an undisclosed location at Taupiri, south of Huntly.

Whatever they were, the 32-yearold had armed himself with an axe and demanded the ute owner get out of his vehicle. The victim eventually managed to get away unscathed.

He had earlier been contacted by one of Paterson’s co-offenders, to meet up and exchange items. When he arrived at the meeting site he saw a man and a woman in a grey BMW.

As the man approached the victim’s ute, Paterson and two others ran from nearby bushes and threatened him, demanding he get out of his ute.

One grabbed the victim’s arm but he broke free and ran to a nearby house. As he ran, the axe was thrown in his direction.

When he returned to where he had left his his vehicle, loaded with about $8000 worth of tools, it was gone.

On September 30, Paterson was seen driving a Lexus stolen from a Hamilton East house the day before.

It had been reverse-parked up a shared driveway in Breckons Ave,

Nawton. Paterson was in the driver’s seat when police drove in and activated their flashing lights.

He took the opportunity to accelerate and dodged around the patrol car, narrowly missing it, and sped off. He was stopped after a short pursuit.

In the Hamilton District Court yesterday Paterson admitted charges of aggravated robbery, assault with a weapon, failing to stop, driving while disqualified and unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.

He was convicted by Judge Arthur Tompkins and remanded in custody for sentencing in July.