Eight years jail for Adelaide pub gunpoint robbers
Three armed robbers who held up an Adelaide pub have been sentenced to prison after stealing $13,000 in pokies takings and “terrifying” staff in an ambush.
William Laurence Lindsay, Trevor Herbert Rankine and Zachary Peter Woods committed the robbery at the V Hotel at Virginia about 2am on 9 October, 2019.
The men were disguised and threatened staff with a gun and tyre iron.
They were sentenced by Justice Adam Kimber, who said “Your offending was well-planned. The vehicle in which you arrived had false number plates, you were all heavily disguised including wearing gloves. At least one of you had close knowledge of the layout of the hotel.
“Upon forcing entry you all immediately ran into the gaming area and adjacent areas where money was being sorted or kept.”
A total of $12,999.61 was taken.
“I have no doubt you planned your arrival to coincide with when you expected staff to be putting away taking from the gaming machines,” Justice Kimber said.
The hotel manager and two staff members were “terrorised” and the robbery “changed their lives forever”.
Victim impact statements described the aftermath as “living a nightmare” since the crime, while the manager “feels almost permanently lonely and isolated. He is nervous in every day settings and has lost his sense of safety,” Justice Kimber said.
The three men, who are repeat offenders, were found guilty of aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated robbery.
“There is a need to impose sentences that recognise the importance of protecting those vulnerable to such offending in their workplaces and also which might act as a deterrent to others,” the judge said.
“The risk of each of you reoffending is significant,” he said.
“I am pessimistic about your respective prospects of rehabilitation.”
Rankine and Woods were jailed for eight years and three months with non-parole periods of 6 years and eight months. Lindsay was jailed for eight years and six months with a non-parole period of six years and 10 months.
Irit Jackson, 11th July 2022
