A drug addict who robbed a Wodonga chemist while withdrawing from medication has been sent to jail for seven months.
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Liam Stanger, 37, needed to visit Wodonga, four hours from his home in Cooma NSW, to get his methadone prescription after being told it was not available in Corryong.
But his script was not there as expected on May 19.
Stanger instead dressed in a hoodie to hide his face and went inside the Wodonga Soul Pattinson Chemist.
Magistrate Peter Mithen said the pharmacist must have been in fear when Stanger swore and demanded the drugs.
“He comes in and starts raiding the shelves and says ‘I’m not f-ing around’,” he said.
“The pharmacist would be entitled to be alarmed.”
The man stood back and let the robber fill a backpack himself, with more than $600 worth of drugs.
Stanger has spent more than three months in custody on remand since the offences and appeared in Wodonga Magistrates Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to charges including robbery, altering a prescription and possessing cannabis.
When he is eventually released from custody, he will have to complete a 12-month community corrections order with the conditions to complete treatment for drugs and programs to address mental health and reoffending.
“You went into that pharmacy, you took matters into your own hands,” Mr Mithen said.
“If you’re going to commit serious offences like this, you have to accept the consequences.”
The incident lasted 30 to 40 seconds.
Solicitor Mario Vaccaro said Stanger would also have to serve about six weeks in custody in NSW on his release from Victorian jail, due to a breach of parole.
He said the robbery was committed due to an opioid addiction, but was at the lower end of offending as there was no weapon involved and no contact with the victim.
“The pharmacist described the accused as very, very distressed and that is consistent with him not getting his dose of methadone,” Mr Vaccaro said.
“He’s been addicted to opioids for the past 10 years.”
The court heard Stanger also altered a doctor’s prescription to include anamorph, a morphine substitute, in Numurkah in February and was caught in possession of two grams of cannabis in Corryong in May.
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