Fairfield: Carlos Habib pleads guilty to violent Gumtree ambush at Brenan St
A man arranged for Carlos Habib to meet him at his southwest Sydney home after he answered an online ad to buy his $2K iPhone on Gumtree. Soon after, he was punched, threatened with a gun and hit by a car.
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Aspiring artist Carlos Habib — who assaulted a man before stealing his $2000 iPhone and whose mates almost ran over the victim in a getaway car during a Gumtree purchase — has pleaded guilty to the violent robbery.
The former Bossley Park High School student faced Parramatta Local Court on Thursday when his lawyer indicated he would plead guilty to aggravated robbery and using corporal violence and aggravated steal from person at Fairfield on March 17, 2019, when he used the phone purchase as “bait’’ for the attack.
Court papers revealed “an amount of planning’’ had gone into the offence that saw Habib, 22, respond to a Gumtree ad that victim Ash Issac, 41, posted to sell his Apple XS Max 512GB.
When Habib spoke with the victim over the phone, he successfully negotiated to reduce the price to $1900 before received the address via text message.
But when Habib called the victim, he was not waiting outside the house like he said he was and was standing at the intersection of Wood St and Brenan St.
Mr Issac walked to meet Habib and was reaching in a paper bag to retrieve the phone when Habib punched his mouth and nose, sending the victim falling to the ground before the two fought for the phone.
Police facts tendered to the court state Habib grabbed the phone and started running away before Mr Issac threw a punch, hitting him in the neck, and tried to chase him down Brenan St.
But the ordeal wasn’t over for the victim.
Habib’s mates were waiting in a getaway car blocking Wood St and a timber-wielding driver that police said was an “unknown male” left the driver’s seat.
“The victim ran towards the car and the unknown male started screaming “bring it on’,’’ the police facts state.
“The victim started screaming “I will f*** your mum’’.’’
The victim grabbed a scraper out of his pocket which he still had from work.
But the attacker then started wielding a small black firearm, forcing the victim to back off.
Police facts state the driver sped towards the victim before breaking at the last second.
“The victim has jumped to avoid a collision and placed his hand on the bonnet but the vehicle has still collided with his knee.
“During this the accused Habib continued running down Brenan St. The driver of the vehicle reversed doing a burnout and left the scene travelling down Brenan St where the accused Habib has got back into the vehicle about 150m from the robbery.’’
A day later, Habib and another man were searched at Quarry Rd, Bossley Park, where they seized his mobile phone.
Burwood detectives searched his home for another robbery that occurred at Flemington just an hour before the Gumtree assault.
Habib was arrested on June 3.
At court on Thursday, the robbery in company charge was withdrawn.
Habib, who is unemployed and lives with his parents, had work featured in ArtExpress.
Police facts state
Habib is due to be sentenced at Parramatta District Court on October 16.