Two brothers have confessed to terrorising a rideshare driver at a suburban McDonald’s over a request for a tip.
Simon and Andrew George appeared in the County Court on Friday where they each pleaded guilty to several charges including robbery, drug possession, damaging property and possessing weapons and firearms.
The court was told Simon ordered a DiDi driver last September to take him to a Murrumbeena address to collect a package.
Earlier that morning Simon had used the same driver to deliver a package to a woman. The woman claimed the driver asked for a tip, police said.
Simon made and cancelled dozens more delivery bookings before he got one that was allocated to the same driver.
When the DiDi driver arrived Simon and Andrew climbed into the man’s car and refused to get out, the court was told.
The scared driver took the brothers to a McDonald’s where he got out and hid inside, but the brothers followed him in.
County Court Judge Michael Bourke described the crime as “brutal”.
“This was a very nasty event,” he said.
Judge Bourke told the court the fact the men ordered and cancelled a number of DiDi’s before getting the right driver was evidence the incident had some premeditation.
CCTV of the moment the brothers bailed up the driver in the corridor to a bathroom at McDonalds was aired in court.
It showed the two men cornering their victim before threatening him with a weapon and stealing his phone and cash.
“That’s a prolonged event for an armed robbery … usually the attacker takes and leaves,” Judge Bourke said of the footage.
“This is very bad behaviour and the man (drixjmtzywver) would have been frightened indeed.”
The driver issued a harrowing victim impact statement to the court in which he explained how he now lived in fear.
“I am a constant prisoner of my thoughts,” he said.
“I worry someone will follow me again.”
The matter will return to court at a later date.
