Anthony Beck, 28, of Shepparton pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to charges including robbery, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury, theft from a vehicle, three counts of committing an indictable offence while on bail, and two counts of possessing cannabis.
A police informant told the court Beck had followed a 75-year-old man who was walking along Hayes St about 11.30 am on August 29 last year, and began yelling at him.
Beck then grabbed the man by the arm and threw him to the ground, dislocating his elbow, before he kicked and punched him while on the ground, knocking the victim unconscious, the police informant said.
The court heard Beck took the man’s phone, wallet and sleeveless jacket.
A small amount of cannabis was also found on Beck when he was arrested later that day.
Police lawyer Molly Wooderson told the court, in a separate incident on April 26 last year Beck threatened his boss while working in the work shed at the man’s property in Arcadia.
Beck told his boss “you’re going to have an accident” and “you’re going to disappear”, Ms Wooderson said.
Later, Beck’s mother was called to pick him up, but he was dropped off again at the property at 12.45 pm.
This time he went into the house where his boss’s wife and their five children were and was looking through the house, yelling “you know what I’m after, where is it?”
His boss then tried to walk Beck out the gate but Beck said “I’m gonna kill ya” before punching him several times in the face, Ms Wooderson said.
He then stole a NavMan dashcam before trying to punch his boss several more times and then running off.
When police found him in Kennedys Rd, Beck told them he was “running from someone who was trying to shoot him”.
When interviewed by police, Beck admitted the punch, but denied the other allegations, Ms Wooderson said.
The court also heard Beck appeared confused in the interview, but said he assaulted his boss “because I felt scared. Don’t ask me what of”, Ms Wooderson said.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Beck’s boss said his children previously used to come to the work shed often, but now they were scared to.
The children were also having nightmares that someone had hurt him, he said.
He also spoke about how he was struggling to stay on top of his workload, but was “reluctant” to employ anyone else as he had a “fear of trusting anyone”.
In her victim impact statement, Beck’s boss’s wife said they were now “always living on high alert” and their “sense of peace and sanctuary has been devastated”.
In a third incident, Ms Wooderson told the court police found 1.24 g of cannabis in Beck’s shoe when they pulled over a car in which he was a passenger on April 30 last year in Kerang.
Beck’s solicitor Luke Slater said his client had “significant mental health issues” but was now on a new medication regime which he said was an improvement.
Magistrate Frances Medina said she was aware of Beck’s struggles with mental health and drug issues and noted a medical report that said he had a “manic relapse” of schizoaffective disorder.
Ms Medina said she accepted Beck was remorseful and that he was “shocked and confused” about the details of the incidents.
However, she said the incidents were “a concerning escalation of your propensity to violence”, with a “significant impact of that offending” on the 75-year-old, while the attack on his employer had “really rocked that family and their sense of security”.
She sentenced Beck to nine months in prison, which includes the 142 days already spent in pre-sentence custody.
Beck was also fined $200 on the two cannabis charges, but no convictions were recorded for these two charges.
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