Two men charged with armed robbery have been committed to stand trial in the County Court.
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Geoffrey Wetzel, 28, and Jason Scouller, 24, have been charged over an alleged incident at the Black Hill Lookout on July 4 last year, where police state the pair stole a victim’s silver Ford Falcon while possessing a firearm and making threats to kill.
The pair appeared together in the dock for the committal hearing before Magistrate Ron Saines on Wednesday. Wetzel and Scouller both pleaded not guilty to the charges, including theft and failing to stop a vehicle when requested by police.
Magistrate Saines said he was confident there was enough evidence for Wetzel to stand trial on a charge of allegedly torching a different stolen Ford Falcon with Scouller in Newington on July 4 2017, telling the court the men’s “Western Victorian escapade is well-documented by direct debits, it shows them acting together”.
Wetzel’s defence lawyer Phillip Bloemen’s submission that the charge should be struck out as there was “no admissible evidence” before the court – such as DNA or CCTV footage – to assert Wetzel was present when the car was torched.
Prosecution barrister Kathryn Hamill told the court CCTV vision of the pair in the later destroyed vehicle was captured at 8.10pm on July 3. The car was torched at 4.25am the next day.
At an earlier sitting of the hearing in July, the man allegedly held at gunpoint by three balaclava-clad men at the lookout said he was given five seconds to give them his car keys or he would be shot.
He told the Ballarat Magistrates Court in July he recalled three balaclava-clad men involved in the incident but he could not confirm if one was carrying a gun.
The man said he returned to his car, a silver-coloured Ford XR-6, to look for his keys when he heard a loud bang, which sounded like a gun.
In part of his statement read to the court, the victim said ‘male three’ held something in his two hands that was half-a-metre in length, being held at hip height. In the heat of the moment, the victim thought one of the men was pointing a gun at him in the early hours of July 3, 2017.
Two Special Operations Group police officers told the court in July Scouller and Wetzel were arrested in Mount Pleasant on July 7.
Scouller and Wetzel will be trialed in the County Court in November.
