A 19-year-old man punched a taxi driver about seven times in the back of the head during a robbery in which he stole $120.
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Jason Lee Riley pleaded guilty to a count of robbery in Invermay on August 7 this year.
Crown prosecutor John Ransom said the taxi driver picked up a woman in Vermont Road after a call at 9.21pm.
Shortly after Riley got in the taxi near the Mowbray Primary School, the woman told Riley: "the taxi driver is a good fellow don't cause him any trouble".
Mr Ransom said the man got out of the taxi in Invermay and went to the driver's window and reached in and snatched $120 cash out of the driver's shirt pocket with his right arm and punched him seven or eight times to the back of the head with his left arm.
The driver said the man ran off and went into nearby units.
The taxi driver drove past and saw a man and woman shouting at each other inside the units.
He told police that the man had a mullet, was about five feet, eight inches tall and of medium build.
Mr Ransom said police identified Riley from CCTV footage taken from inside the taxi.
Mr Ransom said Riley had a number of prior convictions and was the subject of a couple of suspended sentences which had been activated.
Defence counsel Jessica Stewart asked Justice Robert Pearce that Riley be sentenced via a drug treatment order.
She said he had been in jail since being arrested on August 17.
She said Riley, one of a family of 12, had been a daily user of ice and estimated he had spent $10,000 on the drug.
Justice Pearce ordered that Riley be assessed for eligibility and suitability for a drug treatment order and remanded him in custody for sentencing on January 31 at 2.15pm.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
