WHEN Jacob Toleafoa and Kieran Hogan heard a 74-year-old man had won $4000 on the poker machines they forced their way into his Merewether unit and Toleafoa smashed the man over the head with a tyre lever.
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"Where's all the money you won," Toleafoa demanded before repeatedly striking the elderly man.
The 74-year-old later told police he had already banked the money after winning the cash at The Junction Hotel two days earlier.
Then Toleafoa and Hogan called a taxi from the man's unit, robbed the driver of cash and his ATM card, threatened to kill him and held him captive in his cab while they tried to withdraw money from his account.
"How much money do you have?" Toleafoa asked the taxi driver after directing him to a cul de sac in a housing commission complex. "Give me the money. "Where is your wallet? I will kill you."
Hogan pleaded guilty to aggravated enter dwelling with intent to inflict actual bodily harm, aggravated robbery and reckless grievous bodily harm and was last week jailed in Newcastle District Court for a maximum of four years and six months, with a non-parole period of two years and six months.
He will be eligible for parole in December, 2020, when he will be released directly into a full-time residential rehabilitation facility.
Toleafoa, 35, who has a lengthy criminal record and was the instigator of both terrifying attacks, was in May jailed for a maximum of eight years, with a non-parole period of five years.
He will be eligible for parole in August, 2023.
The 74-year-old man told police he had won $4000 at The Junction Hotel on June 2, 2018, and the only people who knew were those present at the pub, his carer and his carer's friend.
But then during the afternoon two days later he awoke to a bang at the front door and went to find it was open and Toleafoa standing there with a tyre lever.
After Toleafoa struck him repeatedly in the head with the socket end of the tyre lever, the 74-year-old staggered to the front steps of his unit block and other residents came to his aid and called triple-zero.
The man spent two days in hospital and suffered multiple facial fractures and lacerations.
The pair stole $810 from the terrified taxi driver, who, after being held captive by Toleafoa while Hogan tried his ATM card, managed to escape and yell: "he's robbing me, help me, help me".