14yo chocolate robber’s birthday spent in court and custody

A 14-year-old boy who robbed a convenience store employee for a $5 bag of chocolates learned a hard lesson when his offending led him to spend his birthday in custody and court.

A teenager landed in court after stealing a $5 bag of chocolates from a Fortitude Valley convenience store.

A 14-year-old boy who robbed a convenience store employee for a $5 bag of chocolates learned a hard lesson when his offending led him to spend his birthday in custody and court.

A judge warned the tiny offender it was lucky the victim didn’t “pop him one” during the incident at EZ Mart Groceries in Fortitude Valley.

The teen turned 15 on Thursday when he was brought from a detention centre cell to be sentenced in the Children’s Court of Queensland on a charge of robbery in company with personal violence.

The court heard the child had no criminal history when he and a friend went to the Valley convenience store in October last year and stole a bag of Pods Twix chocolates worth $5, with an employee pushed during the incident.

The defendant threw a punch at the employee during the incident but missed, with Judge Deborah Richards commenting “he’s lucky the shop assistant didn’t just punch him in the face given the size of him”.

The boy had no criminal history at the time of the offending but has since been charged with a further 51 offences and is being held on remand in a youth detention centre after being denied bail several weeks ago.

The fresh charges include allegations of unlawful use of motor vehicles, public nuisance, fraud, stealing, receiving tainted property, driving without a licence and enter premises with intent.

Defence barrister Kerala Drew said the boy ordinarily lived with his mother and all of the alleged offending had all occurred after he went to live with his father.

“There is significant domestic violence in the family home and his father is in and out of jail,” Ms Drew said.

“He’s turned 15 today, your honour has heard it’s his birthday, it’s probably not the best birthday he’s ever had.”

Ms Drew said the boy reported that at the time of offending, he had not been engaging with school but he had since re-engaged with his education in detention.

The boy said he intended to reside with his mother upon his release and wanted to continue at school.

His mother phoned into court for the sentencing and said “everything went backwards” when he went to live with his father.

“I had him on the right path until that happened,” she said.

Judge Richards sentenced the boy to a restorative justice order.

“Clearly you’re learning a pretty hard lesson now that if you keep committing offences you’re just going to spend time in detention, I hope you don’t like it too much, I hope you want to get out,” she said.

“Spending your birthday in custody is not ideal.

“As I said to the prosecutor, you’re lucky the shop assistant given your size didn’t just pop you one, he could easily have knocked you out probably.”