Brute jailed for three months for vicious attacks on two Fountain Gate Kmart security guards
A Noble Park crim with a 27-page rap sheet had only just been released from jail for bashing PSOs when he went on another anti-authoritarian attack. And his missus was just as bad.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A thieving thug who bashed two Fountain Gate security guards who tried to stop him and his girlfriend stealing a trolley full of Kmart goods has been jailed.
Gavin Keys had only been out of prison for one day — for assaulting PSOs — when he and partner Kelly Clark went on a violent rampage at the Narre Warren shopping centre.
She stabbed one of the guards, flicking blood on him and yelling she had hepatitis C, while Keys punched one security officer and rammed the trolley into another.
Keys, 39 of Noble Park, appeared at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court by video link on Wednesday for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to 10 theft, drugs and dangerous driving charges.
On June 24 this year Keys and Clark were seen by Kmart staff heading towards the exit with a trolley full of gear worth around $500.
Clark was wearing a jacket with tags still on it when the pair tried to flee the store, but they were stopped by two Fountain Gate security guards.
She got out a knife and flicked blood in the face of one guard while Keys wrestled the other.
He punched one guard several times and rammed the trolley into the second before two shoppers managed to take him to the ground.
Keys had also nicked $200 worth of woman’s washing from a Southbank laundry in December 2018 and tried to bring a knife into a court complex in August 2018.
And in January last year he was found asleep in a McDonalds carpark in a smashed-up stolen car with ice and drug paraphernalia on board.
Keys has a long and violent substance-abuse history, with a rap sheet extending to 27 pages.
His defence lawyer said while he admitted his role in the incident, he didn’t brandish the knife.
He said he knew he had to “make some decisions” about changing his lifestyle and was hopeful a community corrections order would assist him in the future.
Magistrate Suzette Dootjes said Key’s violence was “outrageous behaviour”.
“You launched a physical attack on two security guards doing their job in a shopping centre with civilian bystanders who would have been terrified about what was going on,” Ms Dootjes said.
“You are in the high range of risk for reoffending, (and) I find your remorse is limited.”
Keys was jailed for a total of three months, minus 63 days he has already served, and will have to do an 18-month drug and alcohol treatment order upon release.
He was also banned from driving for six months.
Clark, 34 of Narre Warren South, was last month jailed for eight months.
MORE COURT NEWS
JAIL FOR WOMAN WHO SLASHED FOUNTAIN GATE KMART GUARD
FRANKSTON 'KAREN' REFUSES TO WEAR MASK IN JAIL
CORONAVIRUS CROOKS: MELBOURNE’S BIGGEST COVIDIOTS REVEALED