A man who held what appeared to be a handgun to a bus driver’s head before stealing $30 and later waving the weapon around in public has been jailed for two and a half years.
Hamish Smith, 32, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and being unlawfully armed in public over the June incident in Launceston.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Smith boarded a Metro bus without paying and rode it to the suburb of Rocherlea and back, behaving erratically the entire time.
After other passengers had left, he approached the driver, pulled out what looked like a Glock handgun and held it to the man’s head while demanding money.
Smith fled with the cash float – just under $30 – and walked into the nearby Quadrant Mall.
There, he openly brandished the weapon for more than five minutes in front of shoppers, including young children, pretending to cock it and even handing it to a busker at one point.
Police arrested him nearby and later found the gun was a gel blaster.
Officers also discovered a methamphetamine pipe and two stolen credit cards.
Justice Robert Pearce said the bus driver had endured a terrifying ordeal.
“… Bus drivers are in a particularly vulnerable situation and are entitled to the protection of the law,” he said.
“The firearm used in this robbery was not real, but imitations of this nature are very realistic.”
“The incident was relatively brief but the firearm was used in a highly threatening way from a very close distance.”
The court heard Smith, an Indigenous man and father of two, had experienced family violence and sexual abuse during childhood.
His long-standing drug and alcohol problems escalated after a workplace injury in 2023.
Justice Pearce accepted Smith had been heavily intoxicated at the time but said this did not lessen the seriousness of his crimes.
He reduced the sentence from three and a half years to reflect Smith’s immediate admissions and early guilty plea, which spared the victim from giving evidence at trial.
Smith has been in custody since his arrest on June 26 and will be eligible for parole after 15 months.
