An Altona Meadows man has been sentenced to five years’ jail and faces deportation to New Zealand for robbing a St Albans milk bar owner at gunpoint and other offences.
Dennis Taute, 35, was handed a non-parole period of two and a half years after pleading guilty in the County Court to multiple charges including armed robbery, being a prohibited person possessing and using a firearm, contravening bail conditions and fraudulently using a registration plate.
Last September, Taute walked into a family-owned milk bar in St Albans and pointed a firearm at the chest of the Vietnamese woman behind the counter.
He handed her a bag and reached over the till taking cash from the register, before gesturing towards the cigarettes and starting to count to three.
Taute fled with $200 worth of goods on a motorbike parked out the front. Another person on a second motorbike had been waiting for him and they rode off together.
Two months later, police were called to the scene of motorbike crash in Sunshine that involved Taute’s partner and recognised Taute as being wanted over the milk bar robbery.
Police executed a search warrant at his Altona Meadows home and found five stolen registration plates, a Yamaha motorbike and a loaded sawn-off shotgun concealed in a wall cavity under a poster.
The court heard Taute claimed the gun wasn’t his even though its outline was traced on a tool board that was up on the wall.
The court heard that New Zealand-born Taute, who arrived in Australia aged two, was likely to have his visa cancelled and be deported after serving his sentence.
