Craigieburn burglar Gohkan Gediktas jailed for three years

A man whose mate posed as an AGL doorknocker before they barged into an occupied Hadfield unit in a frightening daytime aggravated burglary has been jailed for more than three years. A judge says his rehabilitation hinges on one thing.

Gohkan Gediktas, 33, was sentenced in the County Court to three years and four months in prison.

A Craigieburn burglar with an accomplice posing as a gas company employee has been jailed for more than three years.

Gohkan Gediktas, 33, was carrying a knife and a stolen Samsung mobile phone, house keys and cigarettes when police chased him down as he ran from a unit in Knole St, Hadfield on September 15 last year.

Court documents showed Gediktas and two men went to the house about 11.40am, with one of the trio impersonating an Australian Gas Limited employee with an identification document on a lanyard.

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When the tenant refused to let the group inside the men kicked in the back door and started ransacking the property.

Three terrified occupants ran from the property and called triple-0 as they hid in a neighbour’s driveway and behind a fire hydrant.

Within two minutes detective senior constables Mark Walsh and Steven Smith arrived and were confronted in the hallway by two masked men holding bats.

The officers ordered the bandits to surrender but they turned and ran out the front door and into the street where Gediktas was arrested after a short struggle.

The second man dropped a pool cue but managed to get away.

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Gediktas, who completed an apprenticeship in cabinet making and worked as a bricklayer and driver before he spiralled into a drug addiction after his partner died in a car accident in 2016, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, theft and drug possession charges.

Judge Michael Tinney sentenced him to three years and four months in prison with a non-parole period of two years and one month in the County Court on Tuesday.

Court documents revealed Gediktas claimed during a police interview that he went to the house as he had offered to mediate in a dispute between a man and his cousin over $1000.

Judge Tinney told Gediktas he gave police a “self-serving and incomplete” account of his reason for visiting the property that was inconsistent with his plea.

Judge Tinney said being arrested wearing gloves indicated some level of planning.

“This sort of entry is alarming — the occupants had fled their own home in broad daylight,” he said.

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Gediktas had previously served multiple prison sentences and breached a number of court orders for trafficking, dishonesty and violence offences, but Judge Tinney said his future prospects hinged on remaining drug free.

Gediktas will be eligible for parole in October 2020 after serving more than a year on remand.

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