Beef bandit tasered after stealing rack of dried meat and a fire extinguisher

Dried beef bandit tasered while running from cops who spotted him walking down street with a fire extinguisher over his shoulder

Craig McGimpsey, of Horizon Gourmet Meats, with their range of Ironbark Beef Jerky. He met with Coles buyers in Cairns today to talk about supplying their products to more stores.

A BEEF jerky bandit tasered when he tried to run away from police who spotted him walking down a Darwin city street with a fire extinguisher over his shoulder.

Andrew Peter Burai, 30, admitted stealing 10 packets of beef jerky, along with separate charges of giving police a fake name and resisting arrest, when he faced Darwin Magistrates Court yesterday.

He wasn’t charged with driving under the influence, but the court heard he did admit to police that he was drunk behind the wheel and “didn’t really remember” nicking the whole rack of jerky – an act caught on CCTV – when he drove through the Humpty Doo Tavern bottle shop in 2013.

Magistrate Greg Cavanagh said: “He has been in trouble a lot.

“What’s the problem? Is it grog or something worse?”

Defence lawyer Sheetal Balakrishnan said: “It’s some decisions he has made.”

Prosecutor Dodie Roden said two cops stopped to question Burai after they spotted him carrying a fire extinguisher over his shoulder while he was walking down Smith St in July, 2015.

Burai “became abusive”, told them his name was “Andrew Nicholas” and bolted.

“He ran between two buildings and tripped over,” Ms Roden said.

“A police officer caught up ... Burai adopted a fighting stance and the officer, believing he was about to be assaulted, drew his Taser.”

Burai tried to run away again but was caught while he attempted to scale a fence.

“He was thrashing his arms and body,” Ms Roden said, adding he was Tasered when both officers were unable to arrest him.

“He continued to struggle.

“One officer did a sweeping kick and got him on the ground ... he was taken to the cage vehicle.”

Ms Balakrishnan said her client was “subject to an extreme amount of force”.

Mr Cavanagh imposed a two-month prison term, backdated to November 5 to allow for time spent in custody.