Megan Nicole McAteer jailed for Kallangur mugging of elderly lady

A Moreton Bay region woman has been handed her first taste of prison green after committing a string of brazen daylight crimes.

A hairdresser committed a string of brazen daylight crimes, including mugging a 70-year-old woman, stealing a tablet worth $1500 from a pub and taking booze from a neighbouring bottle shop.

Kallangur woman Megan Nicole McAteer, 32, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to aggravated robbery and two charges of entering premises with intent.

All offences were committed in a three-hour window on July 10 this year at Kallangur.

First, McAteer entered the Diamonds Tavern at 1.30pm, put $50 in a pokie machine, then attempted to get a refund from an attendant by telling her she deposited $100 in the machine.

When informed the machines wouldn’t be reconciled until the following week, she stormed out, snatching a tablet worth $1500 from behind the bar.

She then attended a neighbouring Liquorland store, where she helped herself to two bottles of spirits worth $118.

Finally, in the carpark of the centre where her first two crimes were committed, McAteer approached an elderly woman and demanded her car keys.

Kallangur woman Megan Nicole McAteer, 32. Picture: Facebook

When the woman refused, McAteer grabbed her handbag and dragged her along with it as she attempted to yank it from her grasp.

McAteer told the woman, “Let me have your bag or I’m going to hurt you,” before she managed to wrest it free and decamped the scene.

McAteer was arrested and remanded in pre-sentence custody, where she has remained, the following day.

She had a somewhat relevant criminal history, the court heard, with recent convictions for assaulting a police officer, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, attempting to pawn stolen jewellery and drug offences.

Defence counsel Cecelia Bernardin told the court her client, a trained hairdresser, had a prejudicial upbringing marred by violence.

She said her client had a longstanding problem with cannabis and speed, and was a mother to two daughters.

Ms Bernardin said her client intended to live with her mother at Strathpine upon her release and seek work as a hairdresser or retail assistant.

McAteer was sentenced to two years’ impediment with immediate parole release, taking into account the 158 days she spent on remand.

However, McAteer will not be released until tomorrow at the earliest, as she has an outstanding charge before the Caboolture Magistrates Court.