Wyong: Zoe Lee Zombori robbed servo with knife to join partner in custody
A woman held up a servo at knifepoint before fleeing with $310 cash in a “self-sabotaged” effort to be reunited with her partner, who had been arrested the day before, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A woman believed “a true act of love would be to go to jail” if her partner was arrested so she robbed a service station at knifepoint only for her girlfriend to be released before her, a court has heard.
Zoe Lee Zombori, 34, of Wyong, was sentenced last month in Gosford District Court after pleading guilty to holding up a service station while armed with a 20cm knife.
The court heard Zombori was on five community corrections orders at the time for resisting police, drink-driving and driving while suspended.
An agreed set of facts states Zombori was captured in CCTV entering the Shell service station on the corner of Anzac Ave and the Pacific Highway shortly after 11pm on July 23 last year.
“The offender is wearing a black hoodie pulled up over her head, a black face mask, black shorts and black sneakers,” the facts state.
CCTV records her approaching the counter holding a 20cm-long kitchen knife and demanded the attendant to “Give me the money”.
“The offender grabbed the cash from (the victim’s) hand and then started removing the cash directly from the till,” the facts state.
The attendant then ran into a staffroom and pressed an alarm with Zombori fleeing out the front dropping a $50 and $20 note as she left.
Three minutes later police were patrolling near the service station when they noticed Zombori in a car park off Hardware Lane, which runs parallel to the Pacific Highway towards Aldi.
Police gave chase and arrested her a short distance away.
“The offender said `I’ve got his money, it’s in my wallet. They can take it back’,” the facts state.
“The offender said `ah f..k, I f..ked up didn’t I. My missus just gone to jail today and now I’m going’,” the facts state.
Police found the knife and $310 in cash with her fingerprints on it.
Giving evidence at her sentence hearing, Zombori told the court she held up the service station to be reunited with her partner, who had been arrested the day before.
Judge David Wilson said Zombori said she had been manipulated into believing a “true act of love would be to go to jail if her partner was ever arrested”.
“As the offender blamed herself for her part in the arrest and incarceration (of her partner), she self-sabotaged and committed the armed robbery,” he said.
“Her partner has since been released and the offender is resentful of that fact that she remains in custody.”
Judge Wilson sentenced Zombori to an intensive corrections order for two years with 200 hours of community service a condition that she abstain from alcohol or illicit drugs.
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