![ARREST: Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald after his arrest at Elermore Vale in March. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and is already serving time for an attempted home invasion. ARREST: Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald after his arrest at Elermore Vale in March. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and is already serving time for an attempted home invasion.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/v6ZqFubQfSczSV22Th78nc/e4df532b-9ef0-4c16-ab0d-e028d1619ac3.jpg/r0_0_1527_1543_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A ONE-LEGGED man who robbed a 17-year-old boy who came around to his Elermore Vale unit to buy cannabis blamed the coronavirus pandemic for spiking his anxiety and said he needed the money to buy prescription drugs.
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Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald, who had his lower right leg amputated after a motorbike accident, was out on bail charged over a home invasion at Valentine when he used what turned out to be a toy shotgun to rob the 17-year-old boy in March this year.
"There are two ways we can do this," Rolls-Fitzgerald told the boy. "You can give me the money and go, or I can shoot you with the 12-gauge shotgun or stab you with the knife. What do you want?"
Rolls-Fitzgerald appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from jail this week and pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
Already serving a jail term for his role in the failed home invasion at Valentine, Rolls-Fitzgerald is facing more time behind bars when he is sentenced in Newcastle District Court later in the year.
According to an agreed statement of facts, the victim asked a friend in March where he could buy some cannabis and was referred to Rolls-Fitzgerald.
He reached out to him via Facebook and the pair exchanged messages and discussed prices and quantity.
It was about 4.30pm on March 28 when the victim and a friend drove over to Rolls-Fitzgerald's unit with $270. Rolls-Fitzgerald had repeatedly told the victim to come into the unit, saying he had one leg and did not want to catch coronavirus by going outside.
"Run in got one leg bro not worth the virus to run out haaha," Rolls-Fitzgerald said in one message.
The victim hadn't been inside long when Rolls-Fitzgerald made the threats, pointing to a knife attached to a stick on his bed and lifting up a black shotgun.
Scared, the victim handed over the money and Rolls-Fitzgerald told him: "I am sorry I had to do this, but corona has hit me hard. I need this to buy a bottle of Xanax or I am going to kill someone."
And as the victim left Rolls-Fitzgerald's unit, something bizarre happened; he accidentally let out his attacker's dog prompting Rolls-Fitzgerald to ask: "Can you get the dog for me?"
The victim got the dog and put it back inside and then went back out to where his friend was waiting in the car.
"I just got a gun pointed to my head," the victim said, visibly shaken.
Newcastle City police launched an investigation and about 7am on March 30 officers, with assistance from police negotiators and the Tactical Operations Region Support (TORS) Group, went to a unit on Smith Street, Elermore Vale, and spoke with Rolls-Fitzgerald.
Police said Rolls-Fitzgerald peacefully surrendered and was arrested about 7.40am.
Rolls-Fitzgerald was one of nine people charged over an attempted home invasion at Valentine in May, 2019. On that occasion two car loads of people armed themselves with a 12-gauge shotgun, a knife and three baseball bats and tried, unsuccessfully, to get into a house on Berringar Road.
He pleaded guilty to using an offensive weapon in company and possession of a shortened firearm and in July was jailed for a maximum of 20 months, with a non-parole period of 10 months.