By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A VIOLENT ice addict who falsely imprisoned and threatened to kill a Berwick shop assistant has been sentence to jail.
Jeremy Arvidson held scissors to the neck of a Woolworths employee collecting trollies and demanded he handed over his wallet in September last year.
The 21-year-old then walked the employee to an ATM 150 meters away with one arm around the employee’s neck and the other holding the scissors to his stomach.
Arvidson, already serving a separate jail sentence, fronted the County Court of Victoria on Thursday 16 April with a string of other charges including theft, armed robbery, possessing a firearm while a prohibited person, burglary and false imprisonment.
He also pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and stating a false name to police.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, with a 24-month community corrections order upon leaving prison.
Police arrested Arvidson, who falsely identified himself as Jeremy Oates, in Berwick hours after threatening to kill the Woolworths employee.
A month before threatening to kill the Berwick shop assistant, Arvidson stormed into a Seaford business with an unknown accomplice before threatening to kill an employee with a loaded gun, the court heard.
Arvidson, unlicensed at the time, took off in an employee’s car and, a day later, stole a set of security keys from a hotel in Rowville with two other men.
Arvidson was already serving an 18-month jail sentence when he appeared for his April sentencing.
In February last year he was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order after being convicted of possessing of drugs of dependence and controlled weapon but breached the order.
Arvidson was sentenced to imprisonment on 15 January this year for the breach and other charges related to unlicensed driving, reckless conduct, dangerous driving, possessing LSD, possession of methamphetamine, failing to answer bail, theft, burglary and theft of a motor vehicle charges.
Judge His Honour Smith said the both sentences will run concurrently.
The court heard Arvidson began using ice from 13 years of age, injecting up to a gram a day between the ages of 16 and 18.
Arvidson, whose criminal convictions date back to 2006, also had a history of alcohol and heroin abuse, and family problems.
