A young man has been jailed for organising three armed robberies across Melbourne, promising the thieves ‘hotels and girls’ as a reward.
Mahmoud Taha, 21, masterminded the armed hold-up of a courier and directed thieves to rob two jewellery stores, armed with hammers.
Sentencing him on Monday in the County Court of Victoria, Judge Wendy Wilmoth noted Taha had been previously associated in media articles to the infamous Apex gang, but she said there was no evidence connecting him to the group.
Mahmoud Taha, 21, has been jailed for organising three armed robberies across Melbourne, promising the thieves ‘hotels and girls’ as a reward
She said in March 2016, Taha began driving a stolen Mercedes Benz with false number plates.
On May 2 the same year, Taha organised the robbery of a courier at Broadmeadows shopping centre, with one of the young men pointing a silver pistol in the victim’s face and demanding he drop his backpack.
The youths fled in Taha’s stolen car with the backpack, containing $236,000.
‘With the cash, you bought cocaine and designer shoes and clothing,’ Judge Wilmoth said.
CCTV footage shows a group of alleged Apex gang members on a crime spree in Melbourne. In once scene two men are seen carjacking a driver at a petrol station in Cremorne (pictured)
Taha paid three teenage boys to carry out the raids on jewellery stores in Melbourne, which they did armed with sledgehammers
Two months later on July 7, Taha organised three teenagers to break into two jewellery shops – Citizen Victorian Watch Repair in Melbourne’s CBD and Farah Jewellery at Coburg – with hammers.
‘You told them you would organise hotels and girls for them after the armed robberies,’ Judge Wilmoth said.
Taha was sentenced to five years and nine months’ jail with a non-parole period of three years.
He has already served 465 days in pre-sentence detention.
‘You told them you would organise hotels and girls for them after the armed robberies (pictured),’ Judge Wilmoth said