By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
CRIME paid a measly wage to armed robber John Oscar Asifiwe.
The 20-year-old Dandenong nursing student helped two males rob $1620 from a servo.
Asifiwe’s take was apparently just $20 – at the risk of up to 25 years in jail.
He and a male co-offender jumped the Dingley Village servo’s counter and manhandled its 24-year-old attendant about 2.30am on 2 April last year.
The co-offender threatened the worker with a knife – though Asifiwe at one stage held the weapon as the register was forced open.
A helper waiting outside threw a wheelie bin and a lawnmower through the front glass doors, allowing the bandits’ escape.
In sentencing on 4 March, County Court Judge Phillip Coish said Asifiwe committed a “horrible act” that terrified the victim.
“You played an active role though it may have been a last-minute action by you and it was unsophisticated.”
The Tanzanian-born Asifiwe had a difficult, disrupted childhood before arriving in Australia in 2008. Thirteen years were spent in a refugee camp.
He was a good student, who was active in the community, according to his mother. He changed when he caught up with a bad crowd.
Asifiwe was entitled to be judged of good character with high rehabilitation prospects – despite a subsequent affray charge, Judge Coish said.
He took into account Asifiwe’s early guilty plea, remorse, youthfulness, no adult prior convictions and his co-operation with police.
The accused’s admissions led to the prosecution of one of the co-offenders.
Asifiwe consented to a two-year supervised community order of 200 hours unpaid work.
