A man who helped use a sledgehammer, demolition saw, and pry bars to force open pokie machines has lost a bid to shave time from his sentence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Richard Michael Rubino, then 23 or 24, was accompanied by two others when he broke into the Weston Club three times between November 2010 and February 2011.
The break-ins caused a total of $272,197 in damage to cash-changing and poker machines, and $37,406 in cash was stolen.
The third burglary was disrupted when a cleaner came in unexpectedly. The offenders left empty-handed, but had already caused $29,600 damage.
The crimes took place late at night, and were highly planned.
The offenders wore disguises, had gloves, and took tools to break open the machines.
Rubino was also involved in using a long metal pole, pry bars and a hatchet to smash a CCTV camera and break into pay-parking machines and steal $7200 at the Westfield Belconnen in January 2011.
He was arrested nine months later, after an extensive police investigation.
The ACT Supreme Court sentenced Rubino to seven years and 11 months imprisonment, and he was given a non-parole period of four years and one month.
He was found to have struggled with mental health problems and a significant poly-substance drug problem.
Rubino also had a significant criminal history and displayed little insight into the root cause of his criminality.
Rubino appealed the sentence in the ACT Court of Appeal, arguing it failed to achieve parity with the sentence imposed on a co-offender, made unreasonable findings and discount for his assistance to police, and was manifestly excessive.
But a full bench, made up of Justices John Burns, Richard Refshauge and Iain Ross, dismissed the appeal on Thursday.
They said the sentencing judge, Chief Justice Helen Murrell, considered the issue of parity appropriately, and had not erred in the way she dealt with his assistance to police.
