Female robber jailed

By Aneeka Simonis

AN ICE addict who used knuckledusters to threaten a victim into withdrawing more than $1000 from her bank account and assaulted multiple police officers while out on bail has been sentenced to jail.
Cassandra Alice McDowell, 24, was handed close to two years’ imprisonment on seven charges including armed robbery, robbery, false imprisonment, two charges of assaulting a police officer and committing an indictable offence while on bail, at the County Court on 19 September.
One of the robberies occurred on Stockman Way, Longwarry, a short distance away from the local primary school.
McDowell forced a victim from her car, yelling: “Get out. Get the f— out or I’ll hurt you”, before taking off in the woman’s car on 5 February.
Weeks later, McDowell, armed with knuckledusters, got into the passenger seat side of another victim’s car parked in the car park at Woolworths in Traralgon and ordered the victim to drive to a bank in Morwell.
McDowell ordered to victim to disclose the code to her phone and bank account, and consolidated the victim’s funds into the one account before getting out of the car and withdrawing $1100 from a teller at a Commonwealth Bank in Morwell.
The victim was then ordered to drive off to a fast-food restaurant in town and told to report the money as having been stolen in an earlier incident.
McDowell then took off with the victim’s mobile phone, a watch, a Coles card, a Victorian driver’s licence, a Healthcare card, a Medicare card, cigarettes and the $1100 cash.
The victim reported the incident to police, who arrived at a Traralgon house later that day to arrest McDowell.
The court heard McDowell violently resisted arrest, lunging at and twice attempting to head-butt one officer and spitting on another.
McDowell was found in possession of the knuckleduster and cash during a body search.
All offending occurred while the offender was on bail for drug possession charges.
The court heard McDowell had been using drugs since her early teens, particularly ice, and that her offending had escalated.
Judge Elizabeth Gaynor sentenced McDowell to 23 months and three weeks’ jail, to be followed by a three-year community corrections order.
McDowell had already served approximately a third of the sentence in pre-detention.