The robbery of a Newcastle pharmacy by a homeless man armed with a box cutter that was still in its packaging was a "cry for help", a court has heard.
Bradley James Carney had been sleeping rough - at one stage on a tennis court in Cooks Hill - in March 2022 when he walked behind the pharmacist's dispensary counter at Chemist Warehouse in Hamilton and demanded a range of painkillers.
Newcastle District Court heard on Tuesday that Carney had earlier stolen a box cutter from a nearby IGA store and fumbled with the packaging, attempting to retrieve the knife, telling the pharmacy attendant to hand over the drugs "before I do something stupid".
Carney fled the scene with what Judge Roy Ellis described as a small amount of drugs, including fentanyl, codeine tablets and oxycodone. He was detained on Steel Street in Newcastle West the following day, where he unsuccessfully resisted arrest - he was carrying some of the drugs from the Hamilton pharmacy in his backpack.
The court heard that Carney had been handed two community corrections orders in court, "essentially for domestic violence matters", a week before the hold-up.
His defence lawyer told the court that, at the time of the robbery, her client saw custody as a place where he would have access to food, a bed and shelter, saying the situation was "sad".
Judge Ellis said the crime had been committed by "a man who was down and out, had nowhere to live, [and] was sleeping on a tennis court".
"As far as robberies go, it's closer to a cry for help than ... you see in most cases," he said.
"But it's still frightening [for the victim], no doubt."
Judge Ellis sentenced Carney to two years and six months in jail, with a non parole period of one year and three months.
The sentence was backdated - Carney has been in custody since last March - meaning he will be released on parole in June.
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