A young army private who helped rob a credit union on Sydney Air Force base has been spared going to jail after a car accident left her with brain injuries.
Tayla Stahl, 22, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence in Penrith District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to help rob a credit union at Richmond RAAF base in February, 2014, and conspiring to rob an RSL.
The judge described the heist on the Defence Force Credit Union as "an amateurish and indeed stupid plan" and said it was absurd to think anyone from the general public could be co-accused.
The since-fired private acted as lookout and then drove the getaway car 500 metres across the secured Defence facility.
"It was as brazen in its (execution) as it was inanely amateurish in its planning," Judge Robert Sutherland said.
"This was, in military terms, a safe base."
The 22-year-old's co-accused has pleaded not guilty and is going to trial.
Judge Sutherland took into account several factors in Stahl's sentence, including her age at the time of the offence and her early admission of guilt.
He also noted the Victoria-raised woman was neither the instigator, perpetrator nor beneficiary of the armed robbery and was "in the thrall" of her co-accused.
Nevertheless, accomplices to armed robbery were convicted of the same crime as their partners holding the weapon.
A significant factor in suspending her sentence were injuries sustained when Stahl was hit by a car on a night out in Sydney in June 2015.
Traumatic brain and wider physical injuries have affected Stahl's memory and mental health, and required her to undergo substantial rehabilitation.
Judge Sutherland said he believed the sum of those factors "crossed the threshold" for considering a suspended sentence.
The lengthy delay between the offence and prosecution was blamed on the defence force's two-and-a-half-year internal investigation that ended in the matter being turned over to NSW police.
Share
