A TEENAGER who robbed a man with a machete in broad daylight in Tamworth could be eligible for parole later this year.
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Jayden Robert Follington was jailed for almost three years for the daylight robbery in South Tamworth in February 2019.
The then 18-year-old used a machete to threaten a man while he tried to withdraw money from the ATM at the Robert Street Shopping Centre on February 12, last year.
In sentencing in Tamworth District Court, he admitted to robbery armed with an offensive weapon - a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.
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Judge Deborah Payne handed Follington a head sentence of two-years-and-nine-months in custody, with a minimum of one-year-and-four-months behind bars, before he is eligible for parole.
The sentence was backdated to July last year meaning after time served, Follington will be eligible for parole in November.
Judge Payne said she would have imposed a three-year, nine-month sentence if it hadn't of been for Follington's early guilty plea. She found special circumstances and gave him a 25 per cent discount for the early plea, which saw one year taken off the total sentence.
An additional charge of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence was taken into account in sentencing, Judge Payne said.
Follington had previously been denied bail in the local court on the robbery offence after the magistrate was told he had a long history of substance abuse which had escalated in the lead-up to the offence.
At the time, the Crown maintained it was a strong prosecution case with CCTV showing the offence; the clothing he was depicted wearing in the offence was found by police in a subsequent raid; and he was pictured wearing the same clothing when he "reports to the police the previous day".
Follington had lingered around the Robert Street Shopping Complex for some time before he approached the rediATM near the entrance to the shopping centre.
The robbery took place at about 4pm, when a 35-year-old man was confronted from behind and handed over his money before Follington fled the scene.
The victim was not injured during the incident.
The robbery at the ATM was captured on CCTV footage that police seized from the shopping centre in South Tamworth, and released as part of a public appeal.
Three days later Oxley police arrested Follington at a Central Avenue home, and took him into custody.