A MAN jailed for his part in an assault on Albury’s Larry Haifa more than three years ago was armed with a loaded .22 revolver when he attempted to hold-up a Wodonga liquor store last year, a court has been told.
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Ian Schaeffer was jailed for 13 months in Albury Court in November 2010 for landing a blow to Mr Haifa’s head as he lay unconscious in the middle of Dean Street.
Mr Haifa eventually recovered after suffering life-threatening injuries when he was attacked in Albury on Christmas Eve, 2009.
Yesterday Schaeffer pleaded guilty to an attempted armed robbery in Wodonga last year.
But the plan Shaeffer and accomplice Harry Millington had to hold-up the Southside-Terrace Premix King store in Wodonga on AFL grand final night was foiled by a sophisticated police operation involving the Special Operations Group, armed taskforce and Wodonga police and detectives.
Shaeffer, 22, and Millington, 21, had done a number of “drive-bys” on the bottleshop before attempting the hold-up on September 28.
Shaeffer, formerly of Wodonga and now of Hoppers Crossing, was armed with the loaded handgun while Millington, of Albury, carried a black imitation pistol.
But police had been shadowing the duo for several hours after receiving information they were in the area and actively trying to source firearms.
They knew the pair planned to rob the Premix King after watching them do several drive-bys of the business over the course of a couple of hours.
Plain-clothes police approached liquor-store owner Jim North at 7pm and warned him armed robbers were planning to strike.
The business continued to operate as normal, monitored by police.
Officers evacuated Mr North and two staff to the Wodonga police station about 9.15pm.
The store was locked but the lights left on and signs left at the front, to give the impression the business was still open.
Shaeffer and Millington approached the entrance just after 10pm and tried to force their way in.
They were arrested by officers from the Special Operations Group as they returned to their nearby car.
County Court judge Roy Punshon was told yesterday
Millington had been on a suspended sentence at the time, while Shaeffer had been out of jail less than six months on another matter.
“These are worrying charges,” he said.
“One of them had a loaded firearm. You only need one little thing to go wrong and someone gets shot.”
Millington and Shaeffer, who have been in custody since their arrest, both entered guilty pleas to a charge of attempted armed robbery yesterday, while Shaeffer also pleaded guilty to being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
Judge Punshon adjourned the matters to a date to be fixed for a psychological assessment of Shaeffer.
The maximum sentence for attempted armed robbery is 20 years.
