A teenager accused of conspiracy to commit an armed robbery at the Burns Club in Kambah has been freed on bail.
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Harley Dean Stott, also known as Boardman, 19, was a passenger in the alleged getaway car while three of his associates were allegedly caught trying to enter the club wearing masks and gloves and armed with meat cleavers and a hatchet. The ACT Magistrates Court heard police tipped off the club management before the attempted robbery on December 8 and warned it to lock the club doors.
Lochlan Hinder, William John Callan and Benjamin Thomas Joyce, all aged 18 or 19, were arrested at the front of the club dressed in hooded masks, disposable overalls and gardening gloves.
They were also carrying a kitchen knife, a meat cleaver and a hatchet.
Stott and Queenslander Christopher Rowland, 19, were parked nearby in Joyce's car and were arrested as they drove away.
Police say Stott, who was a member of the Burns Club, had signed in Hinder, Callan and Joyce as guests on December 1 to carry out a reconnaissance of the club.
The court heard police had reopened investigations into a number of similar armed robberies and there was a risk that Stott would interfere with witnesses and offenders in the other crimes.
Defence lawyer Kamy Saeedi told the court there was little evidence of his client's involvement in the crime.
He said Stott worked as a flooring trainee and his boss and a family friend were each willing to offer up to $3000 in cash as a surety for his bail.
Magistrate Peter Dingwall described the case against Stott as circumstantial and not particularly strong. He granted Stott bail on a total cash surety of $5000 and ordered him to live at his mother's house in Kambah and abide by an 8pm curfew unless in the company of his boss. Stott is banned from contacting his co-accused and from coming within 100m of a licenced pub or a gambling premises.
