Noal Peter John Montemayor-Mabb sentenced over robbery at Jasmine Room restaurant in Southport

A man went to a swanky restaurant, asked for a free takeaway and committed a frightening offence in front of shocked lunch time diners. And it all happened just seven days after he was released from prison.

The Jasmine Room Chinese restaurant in the Sundale building in Southport.

Noal Peter John Montemayor-Mabb spent six long years in prison after being convicted over the brutal bashings of two men.

He was finally released September 22 last year.

But just seven days later Montemayor-Mabb was back behind bars, where he has remained after threatening staff at a popular Chinese restaurant with scissors before stealing the till.

Southport District Court was told on Wednesday that the frightening events unfolded when Montemayor-Mabb entered the Jasmine Room in Southport at about 1pm on Thursday, September 29.

Outlining agreed facts to the court, crown prosector Paul Kay said the then 29-year-old was observed by staff inspecting bottles of alcohol inside a cabinet.

“He asked how much a bottle was,” Mr Kay said. “He was told that it was expensive.”

Noal Peter John Montermayor-Mabb.

Montemayor-Mabb then ordered a $14 takeaway meal. Concerned by his behaviour, staff asked him if he had the money to pay for it.

“He asked if he could have the meal for free,” Mr Kay said.

When he was told no, Montemayor-Mabb became “agitated”, talking to himself and sitting in a chair in the dining room.

The 28-year-old restaurant employee and an assistant manager approached Montemayor-Mabb and asked him to leave.

It was at this point events took a sinister turn.

Montemayor-Mabb grabbed a pair of scissors from the restaurant’s counter, made a “stabbing motion” towards the employees and grabbed the till, which contained $1000.

He fled towards the Broadwater Parklands, followed by staff who called Triple 0. He was seen vomiting along the way the court was told.

Police apprehended him a short time later at the Sundale Bridge, recovering the till and the money inside, while the defendant was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital suffering chest pains.

The Jasmine Room Chinese restaurant on the first floor of the Sundale retail precinct in Southport.

Defence barrister Nick McGhee told the court Montemayor-Mabb, who had a tragic family history, had taken cannabis and methamphetamine on the day of the offence, of which he had “limited memory”.

The court was told it had been his first time taking meth.

“What we see is a product of the combination of those two drugs,” Mr McGhee said.

Also outlined to the court were details of Montemayor-Mabb’s “concerning history”, which had seen the 30-year-old spend most of his adult life in prison.

In February 2012 he was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to arson. The then 18-year-old had set fire to clothing bins outside a St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Monto, near Bundaberg, the previous July. The fire spread to the shop, which burnt down, causing $360,000 damage.

In April 2018 Montemayor-Mabb was sentenced over two violent assaults. In the first, on July 23, 2016, a 71-year-old man was kicked and punched in the head at least 20 times by Montemayor-Mabb and another man at a Rosie’s food truck on The Esplanade in Surfers Paradise.

Two weeks later Montemayor-Mabb and another man bashed a 79-year-old homeless man who was sleeping in a car park, leaving him with a broken eye-socket and a heavily bruised and bloody face.

It was a six-year sentence Montemayor-Mabb received for those attacks, served in full, which he had completed just seven days before his visit to the Jamine Room.

The Jasmine Room is a popular Chinese restaurant in the Sundale precinct in Southport. Picture: Steve Holland.

On Wednesday he pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery in relation to the incident, which Judge Jodie Wooldridge said would likely have been “a confronting experience” for diners who were present.

“There were a number of patrons in the restaurant at the time, including children,” she said.

“People are entitled to go to work at restaurants, to attend as patrons, without a concern that someone will come in and threaten staff and attempt to steal property.”

In sentencing, Judge Wooldridge said the circumstances outlined to the court meant a period of parole supervision would be appropriate when Montemayor-Mabb was again released.

“The fact that you within a week of release from custody committed an offence of this nature is concerning,” she said.

Taking into account time already served and Montemayor-Mabb’s guilty plea, she sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a court ordered parole release date of November 28.

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