Bandits roll over

By Tania Martin
A FORMER Belgrave woman and her ex-de facto husband have been committed to stand trial for the bungled armed raid on the Cuckoo Restaurant earlier this year.
Donna Hayes, 35, formerly of Belgrave and Benjamin Jorgensen, 37, formerly of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to the hold-up, at a hearing of the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, on Tuesday, 24 July.
The armed raid happened shortly after 12.30am on Sunday, 1 April, when staff at the Cuckoo were held-up at gunpoint.
Police reports tendered to the court revealed that Jorgenson had admitted that the armed robbery had gone ‘quite pear shaped’. The pair believed they were robbing the Cuckoo of more than $30,000, but instead were thrown a bag of bread rolls.
It was revealed that Hayes concocted the plan to hold-up the restaurant after receiving information from an unidentified source that a bag of cash would be carried from the restaurant at the end of the night.
Hayes, carrying a large metal hammer, and Jorgensen a sawn off shotgun, waited in the bushes near the beer garden of the restaurant on the night of the robbery.
Restaurant manager Peter Uwe Scmidt was carrying a black plastic bag full of bread rolls to his car when Hayes and Jorgenson jumped out of the bushes.
Mr Schmidt told the police that a man wearing a balaclava then yelled at him to hand over the bag or his head would be blown off.
“I thought the guy was joking as I didn’t think he had a gun,” Mr Schmidt said.
“I said ‘what do you want with the bag, there is only bread rolls in here’.”
Mr Schmidt said he was then told not to talk and to hand over the bag.
He said when he turned to give the man the bag the shotgun fired.
He told police that one of his assailants then fell to the ground and started yelling: “You got me, get me up, I can’t move.”
Mr Schmidt said it was at that point that he realised the man was holding a shotgun.
Jorgensen has admitted pointing the loaded gun at who he thought was the owner of the restaurant.
But, he told police he never meant to shoot Hayes.
“Donna ran up behind me and the gun went off,” he said.
“I didn’t even mean to pull the trigger.
“I just heard something behind me and spun around and it went off.”
Jorgensen then demanded Mr Schmidt hand over his car keys and reloaded the shotgun.
“When I saw him reloading I knew I had a few seconds to get away so I ran back to the front entrance of the restaurant,” Mr Schmidt said.
Several other staff members there at the time hurried inside the restaurant and locked the doors before calling police.
Hayes last week pleaded guilty to armed robbery, while Jorgensen also pleaded guilty to armed robbery and to one count of negligently causing serious injury.
Magistrate Peter Reardon remanded the couple in custody and ordered them to stand trial at the County Court, on Monday, 5 November.