Wodonga man Isiah Sinclair sentenced for armed robbery with machete

A Wodonga man threatened two teenagers with a machete while wearing a face mask during an early morning armed robbery, a court has heard.

A man held a machete during an armed robbery in Wodonga last November.

A Wodonga man threatened two teenagers with a machete while wearing a face mask during an early morning armed robbery, a court has heard.

Isiah Sinclair, 18, was sentenced on one charge of armed robbery in the Wodonga County Court on Wednesday having earlier pleaded guilty.

Sinclair was a passenger in a car being driven on Emerald Ave in Wodonga on November 9 last year, when he, along with three co-accused saw two teenagers with one wearing a jumper one of them liked.

Another co-accused left the car and demanded the jumper, before Sinclair also exited the vehicle wearing a white surgical face mask and holding a machete.

The victims were robbed of a jumper, a pair of shoes, a satchel and two mobile phones.

At one point during the incident Sinclair called out to one of the victims “Take your shoes off now or I’ll top you”.

Police later found Sinclair and the co-accused still in the car with the satchel, phones, shoes and the machete.

Judge Simon Moglia said despite there being no victim impact statements Sinclair had admitted the pair would have been “terrified”.

Isiah Sinclair, with three co-accused, committed an armed robbery at Emerald Ave in Wodonga in November last year.

He said Sinclair pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and that custody “had not been easy” on him.

The court heard Sinclair was working in the kitchens at the prison and had begun vocational training in construction.

Judge Moglia said Sinclair had been impacted by drugs in his childhood and that he had an intellectual disability which impacted his judgment and impulse control.

The court heard Sinclair was interested in getting treatment for drug abuse and obtaining his white card to work in construction.

Judge Moglia said the victims were young and Sinclair used a “dangerous weapon” but he was not central to the offending, did not instigate it and no one was injured.

He said rehabilitation was of “prime importance” but Sinclair needed to be deterred from committing further offences.

“If you do, expect to face more time locked up,” he said.

Judge Moglia said protection of the community was best served by having Sinclair released under supervision with appropriate support.

Sinclair was jailed for 152 days, reckoned as time served, and handed a 12-month Community Corrections Order.