Armed robbers Matthew Euese and Theresa Manase went on four-day, five milk bar crime spree
These ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ bandits robbed milk bars across the southeast in a four-day crime campaign.
South East
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A pair of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ milk bar bandits threatened shopkeepers across the southeast with a hatchet, knife and baseball bat in a four-day reign of terror.
A court has heard the duo of thuggish thieves held up five shops in a rapid robbery spree last year, stealing thousands in cash and cigarettes.
And in a pub fight the male also bashed patrons and staff while his partner smashed a glass in a bar supervisor’s face, causing her to lose three of her teeth.
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Matthew Euese and Theresa Manase, both aged 22, were sentenced by the County Court earlier on December for armed robbery, assault and theft offences.
The court heard the couple, who are now married and have a six-month-old baby, was homeless, unemployed and living in a car when they launched their crime campaign.
On November 26 last year they walked into a Dandenong North milk bar, confronted the attendant with a hatchet and demanded the frightened woman fill a backpack with cash and cigarettes.
The day after they hit a Clayton South milk bar, threatening the owner with a hatchet, this time stealing $600.
The following day they went to a Keysborough milk bar, but the worker sounded an alarm and the bungling would-be robbers fled empty-handed.
That afternoon they targeted another Clayton South milk bar, thieving around $500 in cash and some cigarettes.
On November 29, the fourth day of the spree, they robbed a Mulgrave milk bar of $500, this time armed with a knife and baseball bat as well as the hatchet.
The dodgy duo then decided to blow their ill-gotten gains in the city, going to the Spleen Bar in Bourke St.
At around 3.30am the next morning they got into fights with bar staff and patrons, punching, strangling and glassing them before police were called and arrested the pair.
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The court heard Euese, who was a promising junior rugby player, had had problems with alcohol, ice and cannabis, but was now clean.
Manase, who had a more secondary role in the offending, now empathised with the victims.
Judge Wendy Wilmoth said while the robberies and assaults were very violent, both Euese and Manase were remorseful and had good prospects for rehabilitation.
Euese was sentenced to nine months’ jail with a five-year community corrections order.
Manase, who had been on remand of 162 days, was given time served and released on a three-year community corrections order.
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