Ipswich mum April Power-Smith bids for bail for alleged knifepoint taxi robbery

An Ipswich mum allegedly threatened her ‘on and off again’ partner with a knife and bundled him into the boot of his own taxi just days after she received a suspended sentence for similar offending.

April Faith Alice Power-Smith leaving Ipswich Court on August 30, 2023. Picture: Nicola McNamara

An Ipswich mum has made a bid for bail after she allegedly threatened her partner at knifepoint and bundled him into the boot of his own taxi yesterday.

Leichhardt mum April Faith Alice Power-Smith, 24, stands charged with one count each of deprivation of liberty and armed robbery with actual violence (in company/wounded/used personal violence).

Police will allege Ms Power-Smith ordered a taxi to take her from Leichhardt to Collingwood Park yesterday, September 5.

During the fare she allegedly threatened the driver with a knife, demanding he take her to Richlands.

The driver stopped the taxi, and Ms Power-Smith allegedly robbed the driver of $40 and fled on foot at Booval.

During Ms Power-Smith’s application for bail today, September 6, the court heard further allegations that Ms Power-Smith had been in the company of two individuals at the time.

Magistrate Melanie Ho said the driver’s statement recounted how he “thought his life was threatened and thought she (Ms Power-Smith) would stab and kill him”.

Defence lawyer Paddy O’Donnell said his client “totally disagrees” with the facts put forward by police.

He said she denied threatening the driver with the knife, and denied further allegations that she put the driver in the boot of the taxi.

Mr O’Donnell said his client was in an “on again off again intimate relationship” with the taxi driver.

She had been going to a friends place to get car keys so that she could sell her car, and there had “clearly been some misunderstanding”, he said.

“She (Ms Power-Smith)’s not long been out of prison and she’s got aspirations to get a job,” Mr O’Donnell said.

The court heard Ms Power-Smith had been sentenced in Ipswich District Court just last week for similar offending.

Ms Ho noted she had received a 12 month suspended jail sentence, with 253 days time-served, on that occasion for an aggravated unlawful entry and use of a motor vehicle.

Ms Power-Smith was also currently on bail for drug and dishonesty offending, the court heard.

Mr O’Donnell said his client had a four-year-old daughter and a sister she needed to take care of.

He said new bail conditions, such as getting his client to wear an electronic monitoring device, could mitigate her risk of reoffending.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Jo Colston said Ms Power-Smith “owes” time for last week’s suspended sentence and the evidence against her for this offending was “very strong”.

Ms Ho refused Ms Power-Smith’s bail, as she viewed her to be an unacceptable risk to the community.

Ms Power-Smith was remanded in custody for mention on September 29.

Originally published as Ipswich mum April Power-Smith bids for bail for alleged knifepoint taxi robbery