Youth gang member Abdirahman Basa back in County Court over wild crime spree

A member of violent youth gang The Brotherhood stole a car, threatened a supermarket worker with a machete and led cops on a wild chase during a crime rampage.

Abdirahman Basa, 19, and his co-accused threatened workers with a machete during their crime spree. Picture: Supplied.

A member of a youth gang known for violent offending led police on a wild chase during a crime spree that included terrorising a teenage girl with a machete during an armed robbery.

Abdirahman Basa, 19, fessed up to a raft of charges including theft, armed robbery, dangerous driving while being chased by police and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.

He appeared in the County Court on Monday for a pre-sentence hearing and was remanded in custody until December 19 when submissions from lawyers will continue.

Basa, who is a member of the Wyndham-based The Brotherhood crime gang, and two others began their violent crime spree when they threatened terrified workers with a machete as they stole cash and bottles of vodka from NQR supermarket in Werribee on March 28.

Dressed in black with a masked face, Basa then targeted a nearby Foodworks while two other youths, aged 16 and 18, waited outside in a stolen Hyundai i30.

Basa pointing his machete at a 16-year-old supermarket worker demanding she open her cash register. CCTV footage showed him taking the register tray, smashing a vodka bottle on the ground and stealing other alcohol.

Abdirahman Basa, 19, (L) and his co-accused threatened workers with a machete as they stole cash and bottles of vodka from NQR supermarket in Werribee on March 28. Picture: Supplied.

The trio then led police on a high-speed pursuit across the western suburbs which was quickly called off after they threw bottles and a wheel brace out the window, swerved across lanes and reached speeds of up to 150km/h on the Princes Highway.

Multiple triple-0 calls reported a car driving at high speed and erratically before the air wing tracked them to a BP service station in Flemington.

Officers on the ground picked up the pursuit, with dashcam footage showing the stolen car driving at high speed before clipping a vehicle and crashing into the front of a home and a power pole on Ascot Vale Rd in Ascot Vale.

Basa, who was behind the wheel, and his co-accused were trapped inside the destroyed car and were arrested by police who had their guns drawn.

Basa was flanked in court on Monday by his mother, and his lawyer submitted that he be sentenced to Youth Justice.

Judge Angela Ellis wasn’t convinced such a sentence provided any deterrent to him, given Basa’s recent criminal offending.

“He’s got to make decisions for himself. I appreciate that he’s young and there’s a degree of immaturity and there’s clearly mental health issues at play.

“He understands that there are consequences, he’s seen that because he’d been sentenced Youth Justice centre. This is serious offending and there’s a strong need for general deterrence.

“The driving was absolutely appalling. He’s lucky he didn’t kill somebody, he’s very lucky he didn’t kill himself, and the public shouldn’t have to be subjected to this sort of driving by people who are evading police, who commit serious offences, and putting public lives at risk. “It’s simply unacceptable. He’s very much at risk of being institutionalised if he drives someone else’s car in a way like that in future and kill somebody,” Judge Ellis said.

Police had their guns drawn after Abdirahman Basa crashed the stolen car into a power pole following a wild pursuit across Melbourne's west. Picture: Supplied.

Defence lawyer Naomi Low told the court Basa was kept in isolation at Port Phillip Prison and was allowed to leave his cell only for a couple of hours a day.

Basa has had an extremely difficult childhood with exposure to violence, the defence submitted.

He was diagnosed with depressive disorder and anxiety and did not receive any drugs and alcohol counselling while in custody, the court heard.

Judge Ellis has ordered a pre sentence report to assess Basa’s eligibility for Youth Justice however, she made it clear that was not necessarily the sentence that would be imposed.