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<\/p>\nA tradesman who was part of an elaborate plan with a police officer friend to rob an elderly convicted paedophile of $100,000 has been jailed.<\/p>\n
The man, who can only be known by the pseudonym MB due to a suppression order, drove 780 kilometres with the officer from the Illawarra region to Lightning Ridge in October 2024.<\/p>\n
At the Downing Centre District Court on Friday, Judge Robert Newlinds sentenced the tradesman, aged in his 50s, to six and a half years in jail.<\/p>\n
The officer in his 30s, who can only be referred to by his court-imposed pseudonym of MA, was sentenced last year to 10 years in jail.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The victim was tied up and had injuries to his hands and legs. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The court heard the pair borrowed a van from a friend and stored a mattress inside before travelling to the opal-mining town.<\/p>\n
They avoided sleeping in hotels, brought their own petrol in jerry cans, and left their mobile phones in the Illawarra to avoid detection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both men entered the home wearing balaclavas, tied the victim up, ransacked his home and demanded the keys to his safe.<\/p>\n
The court heard MB threatened the victim, saying, “If you don’t give us the key \u2026 we’ll chuck you in the car and take you out to the dam.”<\/p>\n
They found the key, stole $100,000 in cash and left the man tied up when they left.<\/p>\n
The victim was eventually able to reach his phone to call a neighbour.<\/p>\n
“As a self-employed tradie, (MB) would have been very conscious of how bad it is to rob other people of their things,” Judge Newlinds said.<\/p>\n
MA had previously investigated the victim over child sex offences in 2020.<\/p>\n
The court was told MA’s exploitation of knowledge he gained in his role as a police officer added to the seriousness of the offence.<\/p>\n
The judge acknowledged MA’s PTSD diagnosis that manifested as a result of murders, suicides and deaths he witnessed in his line of duty, but said it did not fully explain why he undertook the heist.<\/p>\n
MA, who was moving from active duty to be considered for medical discharge at the time, had resorted to gambling and regularly consuming 20 to 25 standard drinks a day, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Offender was ‘influenced’ by friend<\/p>\n
In comparing the culpability of the two offenders, Judge Newlinds said the police officer did most of the planning and committed “most, if not all, acts of violence”.<\/p>\n
While MB was more of a subsidiary actor, the judge said he had a long drive across the state to change his mind on his involvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His longstanding ADHD and trauma-related disorders made him more susceptible to being influenced by the officer, the court heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The judge accepted MB was unlikely to reoffend and that he “apologised unreservedly” in letters to the victim and court.<\/p>\n
He previously pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MB will serve a minimum of three years and 10 months in jail before he is eligible to apply for parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He must also pay $19,000 in compensation, with the court hearing MA had been ordered to pay back most of the stolen funds to the victim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The officer will be eligible for parole in 2031.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tradesman who was part of an elaborate plan with a police officer friend to rob an elderly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,1109,312,3870,1047,3871,3438],"class_list":["post-2708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-lightning-ridge","tag-police","tag-robbery","tag-wollongong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}