A Wodonga teenager was in a stolen car with three mates when they hatched a plan to commit an armed robbery, a court has heard.
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Albury Children’s Court was told this week how the teenager sat in the stolen Jeep Cherokee while another boy went into the BP service station on Wodonga Place.
That boy threatened the attendant with shards of glass before fleeing with $85 in cash and cigarettes.
He and two others in the car have already been sentenced.
The fourth boy, a 16-year-old, pleaded guilty to armed robbery with an offensive weapon.
Magistrate Tony Murray sentenced him to be detained in a correctional facility for seven months.
He ordered the boy to serve three months before becoming eligible for parole.
But time already spent in custody meant the non-parole period expired on the day before the boy – who escaped conviction – was sentenced.
He was with three others when the Jeep was stolen in Wodonga on November 6.
A co-offender, the boy who later robbed the petrol station, drove and within minutes had crashed into two parked cars.
Around midnight they came under the attention of Wodonga police, who gave chase before losing sight of the Jeep as it was driven north on the Lincoln Causeway.
Five minutes later the teenagers drove into the Wodonga Place service station, where the driver tried to put fuel into the vehicle.
But the service station attendant said over a loudspeaker the fuel pumps would not start for a few minutes as routine tallying was being done.
They then drove away. Police said the quartet then discussed carrying out an armed robbery.
They drove to a business in Nurigong Street, where the driver kicked in a front window and retrieved two large shards of glass.
They returned about 12.10am and the driver walked back into the service station and threatened the victim with the glass.
The defendant made admissions to being in the car during the robbery and to accepting cigarettes.
