Video: Gun-toting robber’s Tooradin servo raid nets cash, smokes and Big M
A gunman has been caught on camera as he stole cash, cigarettes and flavoured milk in a terrifying armed robbery at a Tooradin service station. But he denied involvement even when police showed him the footage. WATCH VIDEO
South East
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Video has emerged of the moment a gun-toting desperado held up a frightened Tooradin service station attendant with a sawn-off shotgun before fleeing with cash, cigarettes and a Big M.
Jack Rawson strolled into the South Gippsland Highway service station shortly after 3am on February 12 with a concealed sawn-off shotgun and followed his victim to the counter where he asked him for the cheapest brand of smokes.
Then, while his victim’s back was turned, he calmly pulled out the shotgun, pointed it at his victim, called him a “c*** bitch”, and demanded cigarettes and cash.
Rawson fled with $334 worth of smokes and $500 cash, turning back to grab a Big M he had placed on the counter.
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Police nabbed Rawson in the back of a car in Dandenong on February 22.
Rawson was sitting on a bag of meth when he was arrested.
Investigators quizzed Rawson over the robbery but he denied involvement instead he told police he was asleep at his sister’s house at the time.
Rawson still denied involvement even after police showed him stills of the robbery.
He said the man in the stills were not him and the suspected appeared to be “Asian”.
Rawson, 24, was sentenced in the County Court on September 25 to a minimum 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to armed robbery, possessing a drug of dependence and driving while disqualified.
Judge Scott Johns said offending against “soft targets” such as service station attendants was “very serious”.
“You entered a service station at night produced and pointed a sawn-off shotgun at (your victim) and demanded money and cigarettes,” he said.
“The very reason for producing a firearm of course was to create terror in your victim so he would comply with your demands.”
Rawson’s defence counsel also conceded the armed robbery would have caused “psychological distress”.
The court heard Rawson had been living in his car at the time of the robbery.
It was tendered Rawson had lived a “transient lifestyle”, experienced homelessness regularly and began using hard drugs at age 13.
Judge Johns said Rawson’s work history was “impressive” and criminal record limited “in light of a disrupted and disadvantaged upbringing”.
Judge Johns found Rawson had “reasonable prospects of rehabilitation” but that was highly dependent on him kicking his drug habit.
Rawson was sentenced to a maximum of two years and six months in prison with a non-parole period of 15 months.
His licence was disqualified for 12 months beginning the day of sentence
Rawson had spent 215 days in custody at the time of sentencing.