Ashley Mepham Graves accused of holding gun to the neck of two strangers and demanding $20

A Gold Coast man left two complete strangers terrified after holding a gun to their necks and demanding money, a court has been told.

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A GOLD Coast man held a gun to the neck of two strangers in the early hours of the morning and demanded they hand over just $20, it is alleged.

The incident has left police with fears Ashley Mepham Graves could “kill or cause serious injury”, the Southport Magistrates Court was told.

Graves has been charged with threatening violence, possessing a weapon and two counts of attempted robbery.

Graves will spend the next few weeks in custody after his bail application was abandoned mid-proceedings on Monday.

It is alleged the 38-year-old approached an Uber driver near the public toilets in the car park at the end of SeaWorld Drive about 2am last Thursday.

The court was told he held a gun, believed to be a black .38 revolver, to the man’s neck and demanded $20.

It is alleged Graves was told: “I’m an Uber driver and have no money.”

Graves allegedly let the Uber driver go and approached a second person, held a gun to their neck and made the same demands.

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The person told Graves they were broke and had no money.

In opposing, police said in court documents that “Graves may in the future kill or cause serious injury to the person he is confronting”.

However, defence lawyer Demi Quadrio rejected that claim: “I would ask Your Honour to disregard that.

“That’s a pretty big inference to draw and complete personal opinion of the arresting officer.”

Ms Quadrio told the court there was no evidence the gun allegedly used in the attempted robberies was a real weapon.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Dave Shelton said the allegations were serious.

“If the defendant is prepared to do that for $20 then who knows what he is capable of,” he said.

Sgt Shelton said there was no evidence the weapons were not real.

Magistrate Pam Dowse described the allegations as “horribly scary”.

“With guns and just picking anybody in the public in the middle of the night, early hours of the morning, and going one person to the other person – that is very concerning to me,” she said.

Magistrate Douse said Ms Quadrio raised some legitimate issues but that she would like to see more material before she made a decision on bail.

Ms Quadrio withdrew the bail application.

The matter was adjourned to January 19.

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Originally published as Ashley Mepham Graves accused of holding gun to the neck of two strangers and demanding $20