WHEN a Corowa bottleshop was robbed at knifepoint, it didn’t take police long to find the culprit.
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Officers arrived at Paul Anthony Matthews’ home about an hour after the incident on August 10, 2013.
A staff member at the Globe Hotel had had a knife pointed at him before being ordered to stash cigarettes and $1405 cash into a green Woolworths bag.
While they suspected Matthews had been involved in the incident, which left the shocked attendant shaking and his voice quivering, it would take more than three years for him to finally admit he had done it.
The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery in Albury District Court last week.
He had earlier claimed to have been watching Coxy’s Big Break, a game of AFL and cooked a chicken curry on the night of the incident.
Matthews also told police had had been flushing his car radiator at the time of the incident.
Police had asked him if they could search his home on the night of the crime, but he asked if they had a warrant.
When officers told him they didn’t, he declined.
Even after his arrest in May last year, Matthews continued to deny any involvement.
He was interviewed after presenting at the Corowa police station.
“I’ve heard people tell, talkin’ about it, sayin’ it was me,” he said.
“Obviously someone’s f---in’ tryin’ to point the finger at me.”
While he said he had seen a CCTV image of the robbery in the paper, he “wasn’t worried about it”.
“Youse can’t tell who the f--- it is,” he told police.
He thought it had been about eight years since he last went down to the venue.
Unfortunately for Matthews, he had kept the white mask and blue ski jacket he had used to hide his identity during the robbery.
Police found the mask stashed in a manhole at his girlfriend’s Sauvignon Drive home.
It fell straight out onto the ground when officers opened up the manhole during a raid.
The ski jacket was found hanging up in a shed.
Officers had raided the house last April, only two days after appealing for more public information.
They had also tapped Matthews’ phone and had heard him talk to people about the robbery.
The 33-year-old, who smiled at people inside the courtroom last week, will be sentenced during the next sitting of the district court in Albury.
