The jail sentence of a man who threatened a child outside a primary school with a baseball bat has been downgraded from four to three months, despite the judge describing it as "rank" behaviour.
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David Van Der Sluis, 37, was armed with the bat on May 3 last year when he and his partner went to collect a debt from someone in Wangaratta.
This attracted the attention of a 14-year-old boy walking home from school along Phillipson Street, who stood and watched.
Prosecutor Andrew Buckland told Wangaratta County Court that Van Der Sluis then approached the boy and demanded he hand over his scooter.
"The complainant, shaking with fear, gave him the scooter and said 'you can have it'," he said.
The boy told police he thought Van Der Sluis would hit him with the baseball bat if he did not do as he was told.
Police arrested the man at Wangaratta's Old Town and Country Tavern the next day and found the baseball bat at his Irving Street home.
Van Der Sluis pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a weapon and two other incidents of theft and was last month sentenced to four months in jail.
In appealing the sentence this week, Van Der Sluis' barrister asked for his client to instead be sentenced to the 53 days he spent in jail after his arrest plus a community corrections order.
The court heard he had experienced "significant problems" with alcohol and drugs and was currently unemployed, but wanted to build a life with his partner in Wangarata.
Judge Julie Condon said Van Der Sluis had already been placed on a community correction order in the past and the latest offence was "certainly troubling".
"(His partner) was with him when he chased a victim who was 14-year-old school kid - it's pretty rank behaviour," she said.
"I'm not sure four months is excessive in the circumstances.
"He's got an extensive history and he's 37."
Judge Condon reduced the jail term to three months and Van Der Sluis was immediately taken into custody after giving his partner a hug in the courtroom.
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