He was also jailed for demanding $50,000 from a Seymour man to keep quiet about a child abuse photo the man had.
Joseph Mazzeo, 55, of Seymour, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to charges of blackmail, burglary, theft of a firearm, theft, possessing a firearm while a prohibited person, possessing an imitation firearm while a prohibited person and possessing methamphetamines.
The court heard Mazzeo and another man tried to blackmail another man on January 11, 2022, over a photo of a naked underage girl the man had shown Mazzeo.
Mazzeo told the victim that he was “a sergeant at arms of the Hells Angels, and we hate paedophiles”, before telling him there was “a way around this”, and if the victim gave them $50,000 they wouldn’t go to the police.
When the man said he didn’t have $50,000, they demanded he give them $30,000 by the next day, or $50,000 by the end of the week.
The victim was also made to withdraw $1000 for Mazzeo that day.
In the burglary incident, the court heard Mazzeo, another man and a woman stole what they thought was a handgun, a homemade pen gun and a box of .22 ammunition from the home of a man Mazzeo knew.
The gun was sold for 28g of methamphetamine, worth about $5000 — which was split between Mazzeo and the co-accused man — and $200 cash.
The court heard at the time of the sale, all those involved believed it was a real handgun, but it was later found to be a gel blaster.
When the purchasers of the gun found out it was not real, they burnt down Mazzeo’s house.
When Mazzeo pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court in October last year, his defence counsel Michael Kats asked for his client to be sentenced to a community corrections order.
He said, while it involved some planning, the blackmail was “unsophisticated” and had resulted in “child abuse material taken off the streets”.
Judge Geoffrey Chettle, however, said Mazzeo should not intimidate someone by “standing over them”.
However, by November when he was due to be sentenced, Mr Mazzeo did not turn up to court and an arrest warrant was issued.
He spent 40 days in custody on the warrant.
In the Melbourne County Court on Wednesday, February 12, Judge Chettle said a community corrections assessment had found Mazzeo to be unsuitable to be placed on a community corrections order.
Judge Chettle said Mazzeo was going to be breached on a community corrections order he was already on for a different blackmail offence because he had committed these offences while on the order and he had not turned up for appointments 19 times.
“I’m left with no choice but to provide a custodial sentence,” Judge Chettle said.
In sentencing Mazzeo, Judge Chettle acknowledged his upbringing where he was physically abused, before leaving home at 15.
However, he said his problem was with his methamphetamine use.
“You committed the offences to fund a methamphetamine habit,” Judge Chettle said.
He also noted that Mazzeo thought the gun was real when he stole it and sold it, and that the pen gun could be used with some modifications.
Mazzeo was jailed for 18 months, with 12 months having to be served before becoming eligible for parole.
The 40 days already spent in pre-sentence detention will count as time already served.
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