ICE-FUELLED armed robbers who were chased by police across south-west Victoria have been jailed.
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Keiarhn Rees Carter, 21, and Lachlan McGregor Mitchell, 21, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court during September to a range of serious charges.
Mitchell was jailed for four years with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years. He’s already served 366 days in custody.
Carter was sentenced to three years and 10 months with a minimum term of two years and three months. He’s already served 236 days.
Judge Gaynor said a medical report indicated Mitchell had IQ problems, difficulty with social integration and mental health and substance abuse issues.
She said he was more vulnerable to negative influences, had not developed mentally and had a tendency to act impulsively.
The judge said Mitchell had been a long-term heavy drug user and a "stand over merchant" who carried around a shotgun.
Judge Gaynor said he had been involved in a “chaotic shambolic life” involving almost constant offending.
She said he had not been able to mature in the normal way because he had been "using, using, using" without adult supervision.
The judge said it could be "kind of fun running wild but on the other hand it's got you nowhere".
Judge Gaynor said Mitchell had created mayhem, chaos and he had gone completely off the rails.
"It's exactly what every parents would fear when their child headed out the door at 14," she said.
Judge Gaynor said both Carter and Mitchell had lacked adult supervision during their adolescence.
She said they “just lived rough and wild" and behaved like "cowboys".
The judge warned Mitchell if he kept offending like he had in the past he would die young.
She said that in jail both had shown progress and drug rehabilitation was crucial.
Judge Gaynor asked "am I going to see you boys again?”
They replied in unison: "No".
Previously the court was told a red Holden Commodore station wagon was stolen on August 24 last year and used by the offenders to evade police in chases across the south-west.
They also committed an armed robbery at the Warrnambool showgrounds.
At 3pm on September 2 Mitchell was driving a stolen Subaru Forester near Camperdown when he swerved onto the wrong side of the Princes Highway and collided with the side of a truck.
Mitchell was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with broken bones in his right leg, a shattered right knee, dislocated right elbow and broken right arm.
