Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
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- Nov 3, 1999
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An elaborate armed robbery on a cash transport van using a stolen car and motorbike netted a recent record haul of almost $290,000 and led police to a cache of high-powered weapons including fully automatic M16 and Thureon machineguns, a court heard.
Also seized was an estimated $100,000 worth of the drug ice, allegedly trafficked by Nathan John Lack, a 32-year-old who police claim has links to an outlaw motorcycle gang, Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told yesterday.
Co-accused in the robbery is former West Coast player Ben Sharp, 28, in which a stolen black Commodore and stolen Yamaha motorcycle were used by three bandits to stalk and then rob a cash transit van at gunpoint after it picked up the takings from several McDonald’s restaurants, including two on the Calder Highway and one at Sunbury in December, the court heard.
“(It was) the largest armed robbery in Victoria in the last few years,” Armed Crimes Squad Detective Sen-Constable Paul Jones said.
Mr Sharp’s brother, Christopher Sharp, 23 was also charged over the $287,750 robbery.
Police have accused Mr Lack, for whom they opposed bail, with commercial drug trafficking, alleging he was connected to 300g of almost 90 per cent pure methylamphetamine posted to West Australia.
The Armed Crime Squad have based their case on phone intercepts, CCTV footage, mobile phone tower locations and other material they say identify Mr Lack, including surveillance of a property where firearms were discovered in a roof cavity.
Those weapons included the M16 assault rifle used by US armed forces, a Heckler & Koch semiautomatic 9mm pistol and a Thureon automatic machine gun — a type not previously identified in Australia, the court heard.
The weapons were magazine loaded and additional ammunition was also seized, Sen-Constable Jones said.
Since the arrest of the alleged robbers, prison phone recordings had also identified what police said were threats against witnesses in the case, including a “bounty on one” and a reference to enlisting the help of a “well known Victorian criminal”, the court heard.
A burnt-out Commodore was discovered at Little River shortly after the cash van heist in which assailants used a sawn-off shot gun and a handgun against the guard.
But defence barrister Philip Dunn QC argued the case against Mr Lack was circumstantial, denied he had any links to bikers and said no civilian witnesses were relied upon in relation to charges against his client.
Magistrate Suzanne Cameron will rule on Monday at 10am on whether to grant Mr Lack bail.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/vic...egun-court-hears/story-fnii5sms-1227366281909
