Abdirahman Basa fronts court after another aggravated robbery

A gangster skipped work after telling his boss he fractured his elbow before terrifying a group of students and robbing them of their iphones in Ringwood.

Youth gangster Abdirahman Basa, who was armed with a machete, and five others robbed a group of students of two iphones in Ringwood.

A gangster who told his boss he had a fractured elbow and couldn’t work robbed a group of students of their iphones while wearing a balaclava and carrying a machete.

Serial offender Abdirahman Basa pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery and was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to six months’ jail

The six months will be cumulative on the four years’ and five months’ jail he received in February for holding up two supermarkets at Werribee last year for just $800 and a few bottles of booze with the help of three Brotherhood street gang members.

The offence for which he received six months imprisonment this week happened in 2022 and Basa was accompanied by five co-offenders who have already been dealt with.

Judge Angela Ellis said Basa and his accomplices robbed four students, aged between 15 and 16, who were sitting at a bus shelter in Ringwood after a day out at the Eastland shopping centre on September 16, 2022.

Abdirahman Basa robbed NQR supermarket in Werribee, six months after robbing a group of students of their iphones at Ringwood.

Basa told the students he had a machete concealed under his waistband and threatened to stab or slap them if they didn’t hand over their iphones.

Fearing for their safety, they handed over two iphones and made their way back to the shopping centre after Basa and his group left.

Judge Ellis said the mother of one of the students managed to track her son’s iphone and when she called on that phone, an associate of Basa demanded money for the iphone and verbally threatened her.

Basa denied his involvement in the robbery and told police he had never been to Ringwood. Among messages police recovered from his iphone was one he sent to his employer on the day of the robbery, telling his boss that he fractured his elbow and couldn’t work.

In a victim impact statement, the father of one of the victims described how his son left school following the robbery and spent his time isolated and disengaged from social groups.

Fearing for their lives, a group of students in Ringwood handed over their iphones to Abdirahman Basa after being threatened with a machete.

He struggled with mental health and maintained irregular sleep patterns, he wrote.

“You targeted vulnerable school-aged teenagers. It was brazen and reflects the utter disregard that you had at the prospect of being apprehended in the commission of the offence,” Judge Ellis said.

“You attacked in the company of a number of other offences. This was cowardly behaviour designed to instill fear in your victims. These weapons carry great potential for injury and the victims you chose were soft targets.”

She said people, especially the young and those vulnerable, should be free to go about their lives free from harm or fear of attack.

Judge Ellis said Basa had more than a fleeting contact with the criminal justice system, given his previous convictions for serious violent offending.