Gold Coast burglar jailed after he sliced a man’s wrist

A masked burglar who slashed another man’s wrist during a violent home invasion on the Gold Coast has been jailed.

Nathan Briggs, 26, was sentenced to a total of seven years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty at the Southport District Court on Tuesday to several violent offences including the September 2015 home invasion at Helensvale.

With time already served, Briggs will be eligible for parole on May 4, 2018.

The court heard Briggs and two other men – Ben John Rowe and Shane Kevin Lemmar – broke into the home of Lemmar’s former flatmate Scott Vidler.

While Lemmar searched the home for property to steal, Briggs and Rowe assaulted Mr Vidler.

During the assault, Briggs cut Mr Vidler’s right wrist with a knife so badly it damaged tendons and required surgery.

Mr Vidler’s hands were reportedly bound with electrical tape and he was left on the floor of his kitchen as the men searched for property to steal. 

Briggs was also convicted on Tuesday of a road rage incident several months before as well as another home invasion in the weeks before the attack on Mr Vidler.

Rowe, 36, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for his role in the home invasion as well as two years for an attempted armed robbery at a Gold Coast bank in October 2015.

Nathan Briggs, 26, was sentenced to a total of seven years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty at the Southport District Court (pictured) on Tuesday

With time already served in custody, he’ll be eligible for parole on February 16, 2018.

Lemmar, who the prosecution labelled the ‘mastermind’ of the home invasion, received a five-year jail term which was immediately suspended for five years by judge David Kent.

The 46-year-old was also granted immediate parole on a two-year sentence for deprivation of liberty after Mr Vidler was bound with masking tape following the assault.