By Cam Lucadou-Wells
An axe-wielding robber who stole bottles of fish oil capsules from a health store in Springvale is facing likely deportation.
Prasanit Sharma, 22, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to armed robbery as well as dealing with thousands of dollars of suspected stolen supermarket items found in his car boot.
Text conversations on the unemployed Sharma’s phone suggested he was in a “business” of selling the fish oil and other goods, Judge Richard Maidment noted in sentencing on 14 June.
After scoping out the Balmoral Avenue shop, Sharma and an associate parked around the corner in Buckingham Avenue in the late afternoon of 12 July 2022.
A masked Sharma entered the shop, raising a tomahawk axe towards two female staff.
He filled a black duffel bag with 12 fish oil capsule bottles off the shelf, and fled to the getaway car.
The next day, his Jaguar car with the axe, fish oil and new, unused supermarket items was found by police at a supermarket in Warragul.
Sharma was arrested by police at Sandown Regency Hotel on 14 July, and denied the offending.
Brought up in a “good family” in India and a high achiever at school, Sharma had started an education degree on the Gold Coast.
After breaking up with his partner, he moved to Melbourne to study commercial cookery.
He was introduced to a meth and heroin habit by workmates in the removalist and construction industries, and lost his jobs at the time of offending.
Judge Maidment rejected claims that Sharma was under the sway of Xanax for the first time on the day of the robbery.
He noted the crime’s logic and pre-planning – it was not a “spur of the moment” event.
Judge Maidment took into account Sharma’s youthfulness, early guilty pleas, and his PTSD stemming from the tragic death of his seven-year-old sister while being disciplined by an aunt.
Sharma’s time in custody would be harder due to his PTSD, the judge found.
He had no prior convictions, but had subsequently been charged with less serious offences.
The judge said Sharma’s best chance for rehabilitation was to reunite with his family in his homeland and separate from his contacts in Melbourne.
With his visa expired, Sharma was likely be deported after serving jail.
He was jailed for 21 months, including 97 days in pre-sentence remand. He was ordered to pay $204 compensation to the health store.
