Rangi Fyfe sentenced over crime spree in Cairns Supreme Court

A 27-year-old man who cut off his parole ankle monitor and then created a “one-man crime wave” has been sentenced in the Cairns Supreme Court.

Rangi Fyfe.

A 27-year-old man who cut off his parole ankle monitor and then created a “one-man crime wave” has been sentenced in the Cairns Supreme Court.

Rangi Fyfe pleaded guilty to 15 charges including five counts of unlawful use of motor vehicle, four counts possess dangerous drugs, two counts of entering or being in premises and committing indictable offences, receiving tainted property and three unlawful possession of firearms and one unlawful ammunition.

The court heard how offences all took place over ten days starting April 20, 2023 – the same day Mr Fyfe decided to cut off the ankle monitor he was required to wear while on parole after serving jail time off the back of 73 offences he committed in 2017.

Not long after cutting off the ankle monitor, Mr Fyfe stole a car and drove it around it Cairns for two days. The joy-riding ended, temporarily, after a police car chase which ended with Mr Fyfe abandoning the car after crashing into some forest, where he then escaped on foot.

Two days later, Mr Fyfe – now a fugitive – was spotted in another stolen car, a Toyota LandCruiser, but again evaded police.

The man attempted to tow the ATM of the Gordonvale United Services store. image: realcommercial.com.au

Then in a third stolen vehicle, a Toyota HiLux, he drove to an isolated farm property where before he approaching a storage shed, he moved to cut down the CCTV security camera cables, broke into the shed and with a pair of bolt cutters cut open a safe where he stole

seven firearms, including two 12 gauge shotguns, four rifles, and a 12 gauge automatic shotgun.

“All but one of those weapons remain missing,” Justice James Henry told the court in his sentencing remarks.

On April 28, he then drove to the United Services Station in Gordonvale, he parked the stolen Toyota LandCruiser near the front door, linked a tow strap from the car to the station’s ATM and attempted to drive off with it.

The court heard the strap broke and he fled.

Police would eventually catch up with him and finally arrested the fugitive on April 30, 2023, where they found he had four grams of cannabis and five grams of meth. Mr Fyfe has been in custody since

“It was a one man crime wave” Justice Henry said, sentencing the man to four year head sentence for the 15 offences with a parole eligibility date of 30 April 2025.

Originally published as Rangi Fyfe sentenced over crime spree in Cairns Supreme Court