Sharon Stott: Canberra crime figure appeals convictions over armed standover job

Sharon Stott says a judge was “unreasonable” to find her guilty of her latest standover job

Sharon Ann Stott, 58, arrives at ACT Supreme Court during her trial over an alleged baseball bat stand over job.

A jailed underworld “matriarch”, who has repeatedly used bikies as hired muscle, has launched a bid to be released from jail.

Sharon Ann Stott, 58, has this year alone been convicted of two separate standover jobs in which she has had bikies mete out violence.

Her latest conviction saw her jailed for three years and four months, with a non-parole period of 22 months, for a violent extortion job she and Satudarah president David Evans, 32, committed against a low-level Canberra drug dealer.

The duo’s victim was held in his own home for an hour, while Stott demanded he repay a fictitious $20,000 debt as the powerfully-built, menacing Evans stood over him with a baseball bat.

In documents filed with the ACT Court of Appeal, Stott’s defence lawyer James Maher says his client will ask a panel of three appeal judges to clear his client of wrongdoing.

Sharon Ann Stott, 58, says it was “unreasonable” for Justice John Burns to find her guilty.

David Michael Evans was also found guilty. Picture: Facebook/Supplied

Stott’s lawyers will argue Justice John Burns’s guilty verdicts on counts of unlawful confinement and making a demand accompanied by a threat were “unreasonable and cannot be supported by the evidence”.

They will also argue Justice Burns was wrong to conclude that Stott and Evans had a pre-existing plan.

If unsuccessful, they will further argue that the jail sentence was “manifestly excessive”.

At trial, Stott’s case was that the victim was a “pathological liar” who grabbed a knife while she and Evans were in the house for a social visit, and that Evans used a baseball bat to stop him.

Her lawyers also argued police had contaminated the crime scene.

Stott’s barrister, Steven Whybrow, admitted at trial his client had a “larger than life” reputation which “put fear into people”.

Stott’s social network, Justice Burns said in October, was “predominantly comprised of criminal connections”.

The extortion job was the second in which Stott had used Evans as hired muscle.

Earlier this year she was sentenced for leading an aggravated robbery in which she, Evans and three other heavies stole gun parts from a home in Oaks Estate.

The victim of that robbery had a knife held to his throat, and had his leg and ribs broken when Evans smashed his leg with an electric guitar and broke his ribs by tipping a speaker box on him.

Stott’s appeal is expected to be heard in 2021.