Charbel Asmar: Caltex Fawkner armed robber escapes jail term
A 20-year-old woman was alone in a service station in Fawkner in the middle of the morning when a man came and made some outlandish claims while he threatened her with a kitchen knife.
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A 20-year-old woman was alone in a Fawkner service station when a man pulled a knife on her in the middle of the day, a court has heard.
Charbel Asmar pointed the knife at the frightened woman and demanded cash, before he lifted the blade above his head and stared at her.
Asmar, 20, fronted the County Court this month, having pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
He approached the woman behind the counter at the Sydney Rd store about 10.30am on January 31 and said: “Your tobacco chipped my neck so I need $20”, before he pointed a kitchen knife with a 14cm blade at her.
The staff member said she didn’t know what he meant, so he lifted his shirt and showed her tobacco tucked into his shorts.
She tried to joke with him, asking for a receipt, before Asmar became agitated, raised the knife above his head and stared at her.
He told her he was going to steal something then wandered to the shelves.
The court heard the woman was worried he might hurt someone who came into the store, so she gave him $20 in the hope he would leave.
Asmar took the cash and left, before police arrested him about 600m away shortly after.
He told police he’d bought the cigarettes, which he claimed were laced and flicked his neck, from the service station the day before, had smoked cocaine hours earlier and was living on the road.
But the court heard he lived with his loving family in Campbellfield, had simply gone for a walk that morning and there was no evidence he’d used cocaine.
The court heard Asmar suffered from schizophrenia, and was believed to be mentally unwell at the time of the incident.
It was submitted that his condition lowered his moral culpability and that prison would worsen his psychosis.
Judge Fiona Todd said Asmar would have good prospects of rehabilitation if he complied with his treatment, which he hadn’t been doing.
She sentenced him to the four days he served in jail before he was granted bail in February, and placed him on a 24-month community corrections order.
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