A West Launceston man who travelled to Devonport to rob two vulnerable women while armed with a replica pistol was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Launceston to a three year jail term on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Nathan Luke Deckers, 28, pleaded guilty last week to armed robbery and attempted robbery on July 2, 2020.
Justice Michael Brett rejected a defence submission for a drug treatment order, an alternative to an actual jail term, saying the crimes were far too serious.
In other news:
The court heard that Deckers and another man picked up a replica pistol from the post office on the day they travelled to Devonport.
Justice Brett said the picking up of the weapon was an indication of the premeditation of the crimes which were prompted by a need to feed Deckers' $1000 to $2000 a week methylamphetamine addiction.
He said the crime was also aggravated by the surveillance that Deckers carried out in the CBD and that he had sought to find vulnerable female victims while armed with a firearm.
The attempted robbery was against a 72-year-old woman who was using a walking stick.
She resisted when he pulled at her handbag which caused her to fall onto gravel in a car park and suffer injury.
"She was not as vulnerable as you anticipated," he said.
"You deliberately targeted her because of her age and physical infirmity."
Deckers ran away and got in the car, but shortly after approached a 63-year-old woman saying "give me your handbag and you won't get hurt".
He was holding the gun at the time and Justice Brett said the implication of his demand was that if she didn't comply she would be hurt.
"A victim impact statement said that she was terrified and that there had been psychological and emotional consequences," Justice Brett said.
Deckers threw a stolen mobile phone out of the car window which was recovered but too damaged to use.
Two days later the co-accused contacted police and handed himself in and implicated Deckers.
A search of Deckers' residence located stolen items worth about $800.
Justice Brett said that Deckers had a prior criminal history in several other states, but nothing major in Tasmania and generally not crimes of violence.
He said that Deckers had a reasonable industrial record until he became addicted to ice and he sold everything he owned to buy drugs.
An early guilty plea was indication of some remorse but a sentence of general deterrence and denunciation of conduct was required.
He set a non parole period of 18 months backdated to July 2, 2020.
