EDITOR’S NOTE: On appeal Ms Tonitto’s sentence was reduced to no conviction recorded and a good behaviour bond imposed.
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A Sydney woman will serve a 12-month suspended sentence for her role in the robbery of a Nowra coffee shop.
In papers tendered to the court, police said Margaret Ann Tonitto, 49, of Leumeah, was found with a walkie talkie in a car across the road from a Berry Street coffee shop, after staking out the scene of a robbery for her boyfriend, co-accused Steven James Fraser.
“I was asleep,” Tonitto told police.
Police searched the car to find $1631.30 in money bags, a black face mask and tools used to break into Poppies Coffee Shop at 5.10am on May 5, 2017.
In Nowra courthouse on Wednesday, May 30, Tonitto was found guilty of having goods in personal custody suspected of being stolen and entering a dwelling with intent.
Magistrate Gabriel Fleming imposed a four-month suspended sentence complete on September 30, and a 12-month suspended sentence complete on May 30, 2019.
Tonitto will not serve time in jail unless she breaks the good behaviour bond.
Police allege at around 5.10am Fraser used a small crowbar to gain access to the coffee shop before taking a number of items.
Scouting the area on foot, they found him on the same block near the Uniting Church.
A search found a knife in his jacket.
Fraser was charged with entering enclosed lands, goods in custody suspected of being stolen, receiving stolen property, possessing housebreaking implements, possessing means of disguising his face, breaking and entering and being in custody of a knife in a public place.
Poppies Coffee Shop is permanently closed.
