by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A robber who beat a driver with a metal baton and stole his ute in a click-and-collect car park at a Coles supermarket in Clyde has been jailed.
Ishmail Sozmen, 38, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to armed robbery, intentionally causing injury, theft and handling stolen goods.
Sozmen and a co-offender stopped suddenly in a stolen Toyota Rav4 in the car park about 5.30pm on 28 October 2019, sentencing judge Frances Dalziel said on 26 October.
Sozmen got out, striking a steel baton on the victim’s Commodore ute and yelling for him to get out.
The ute driver, who was out of the car talking with somebody, fled into the shopping centre leaving the keys behind in the car.
Using their metal weapons, the robbers struck the ute’s front passenger several bruising blows to his arm and thumb.
The passenger also fled into the shopping centre.
Sozmen then drove away in the ute along Green Gully Road, abandoning the car on a nature strip in Clyde North after running out of petrol.
Later that night, the robbers were involved in a petrol drive-off in the stolen Rav4 in Tecoma.
Police arrested them in the Rav4 in St Kilda, seizing $1485, a pocket-knife and the ute driver’s wallet.
Sozmen reportedly suffered PTSD from distressing family tragedies as well as physical abuse in the Turkish army. It was said to increase his impulsivity and cloud his thinking.
Judge Dalziel accepted that he’d turned to drugs in his 20’s in response to the traumas.
However, Sozmen had offered no explanation for what was “by no means a low-level” armed robbery, Judge Dalziel said.
“I find it impossible to make a finding on whether you were motivated by emotional distress, drugs or neither.”
The father-of-two’s “poor” criminal history spanned nearly 20 years of driving, assaults, family violence, court order breaches and drug offending.
His “strongest mitigation” was his guilty plea, which indicated some remorse, Judge Dalziel said.
He’d also shown insight into the links between his substance abuse and offending, but fell short of expressing remorse and contrition
Judge Dalziel noted the co-offender was found guilty of intentionally causing injury but acquitted of car theft.
Sozmen was jailed for up to four years and two months, including 221 days of pre-sentence detention.
Still serving a previous jail term, Sozmen will be eligible for parole in three years and three months.
