Apex gang member back in jail over Geelong home invasion in November 2017

A founding member of the notorious Apex gang with a shocking criminal history is back behind bars following a terrifying steal-to-order home invasion.

A founding member of the notorious Apex gang is back behind bars following a steal-to-order home invasion.

The Herald Sun can reveal the teen was at the forefront of the youth crime gang crisis that hit Melbourne’s southeast in recent years.

“He’s a one-man crime wave,” one officer said.

He is regarded by police as a terrible influence on young ­African-Australians.

The teen’s rap sheet includes aggravated burglary, reckless conduct endangering life, dangerous driving, car theft, intentionally cause injury, and armed robbery.

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Apex Street in Dandenong North.

Before his last release from detention, police feared he would seriously offend again, and that proved to be the case within months.

Now 19, the teenager was on Wednesday jailed for more than five years for invading a Geelong home while armed with a .22 calibre rifle in November last year.

He had targeted the house in pursuit of the victim’s Holden GTS, which he had been promised would fetch thousands of dollars. The teen was on youth parole at the time.

He sat quietly in a County Court dock as Judge Paul Grant detailed how he terrorised a family, smashing down their front door in the middle of the night with two masked co-accused.

While inside he fired the gun, narrowly missing father-of-two Dale McDonald, who had confronted the intruders, telling them to “Get out”.

Mr McDonald’s wife was threatened, and their teenage son hit with a laptop.

The trio eventually fled with a small amount of loot but without the car keys.

“Obviously this is very serious offending,” Judge Grant said. “It was planned. You were in company. You and your ­co-offenders used disguises.

“You drove to the victim’s house in a stolen car. It was 1.50am. You behaved in a threatening manner. You discharged the weapon.”

He said the occupants were so terrified their lives had been “turned upside down”, spending $20,000 to boost security on their home only to sell and move to Western Australia.

Judge Grant said he had little hope the troubled teen could turn his life around, saying he has spent most of his teens in youth detention, first coming to the attention of police in 2015.

“It is such a waste of a young life,” he said.

The teen pleaded guilty to aggravated home invasion, prohibited person possessing a firearm, assault, and conspiring with another person to steal a motor vehicle.

He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 3½ years.