A man who carjacked a victim at knifepoint before bogging the vehicle in a garden 150 metres away has been jailed.
Reza Muradi, about 23-24 years of age, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to aggravated carjacking, criminal damage and unlicensed driving.
The victim had discovered Muradi standing by the victim’s Holden Vectra in an apartment car park in Dandenong on 18 August 2023.
Muradi was asked why he’d smashed the front passenger side window.
After denying doing so, Muradi pulled a small knife and threatened to stab the victim if he didn’t give him the car keys.
He then drove the Vectra over grass, crashed into a side-fence and drove the wrong way on a one-way service lane on Princes Highway.
At the end of the service lane, Muradi tried to drive through a garden but bogged the vehicle.
A bystander tried to assist Muradi to free the vehicle, but upon the sound of police sirens Muradi fled the scene.
The car’s front end was significantly damaged.
In a police interview, Muradi claimed another man carried out the armed carjacking and crashed the car.
Born in Afghanistan, the Hazara refugee came to Australia on a permanent visa just five months before the carjacking.
He denied his family’s assertions that he’d been long afflicted with opiate addiction and mental illness.
Aggravated carjacking carries a mandatory jail term, with a minimum three-year non-parole period except in “special” circumstances.
Judge Krista Breckweg found “substantial and compelling circumstances” including Muradi’s traumatic childhood, intellectual disability, his youth, risk of deportation or indefinite detention and no prior convictions.
During childhood, Muradi fled from the Taliban, lived in a dangerous area in Pakistan and witnessed a bombing that killed many school children.
The judge wasn’t satisfied that Muradi was presenting with PTSD symptoms, however.
“Your mistrust of people and unwillingness or inability to engage in treatment or psychological testing means it is difficult to gain a proper and full understanding of your mental health treatment needs so your prospects of rehabilitation must be assessed as very guarded.”
If he didn’t seek assistance, he was likely to reoffend, Judge Breckweg stated.
Muradi was jailed for three years and eight months, with a 25-month non-parole period.
He had already served two years in pre-sentence detention.
