Levi Tukere: Man guilty of violent Hemmant armed robbery

A hard working Brisbane youth’s sense of ‘shame’ led him to produce a knife in a violent robbery, a court has heard.

A hardworking young Brisbane family man, pushed to the wall trying to provide for his single-income household, produced a knife to rob an international student of his mobile phone to flog for cash, a court has heard.

Hemmant man Levi Ngahere Tukere, 21, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Friday to four offences.

They included armed robbery with personal violence, two charges of fraud and one of stealing.

The court heard the offending occurred between March 4-22 this year.

The most serious offence, aggravated armed robbery, occurred on March 21 at a convenience store at Hemmant.

Tukere contacted an international student via Facebook Marketplace with an offer to purchase an iPhone.

Meeting at the store, the student invited Tukere into his vehicle, at which point Tukere produced a Stanley knife and wrestled the phone off the student, injuring his victim’s fingers in the process.

Hemmant man Levi Ngahere Tukere, 21. Picture: Alex Treacy

Tukere fraudulently sold the $1750 phone the following day for $1400.

A fortnight prior, on March 4, Tukere, using a similar modus operandi, stole a mobile phone at Hemmant off someone offering it via Facebook Marketplace and sold it two days later at Wynnum West.

Tukere was arrested and charged on March 25.

Defence counsel James Feely told the court his client left his high school in Wynnum at age 14 to work full time in the warehousing industry.

He said Tukere, who grew up at Redlands, lost his full-time work because of COVID-19 and was subsisting on employment agency temp work at the time of the offending.

Mr Feely said his client hadn’t been paid for three weeks prior to the theft and robbery, which pushed him to the wall trying to provide for his partner and their two-year-old.

“He felt ashamed to borrow further from his parents,” Mr Feely said.

“For some reason, at the extreme of stupidity, he thought this was the alternative.”

Mr Feely said the case was unique in that Tukere, who had no previous criminal history, was not stealing to feed alcoholism or a drug-addiction.

He further noted the Stanley knife did not actually have a blade, which he submitted reduced the risk of serious injury being caused to Tukere’s victim in the armed robbery.

Judge Vicki Loury QC told the court she believed Tukere was genuinely remorseful for his offending, which she described as being driven by “desperation”.

She sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment with immediate court-ordered parole and made a compensation order to the tune of $1750.