A man who participated in a staged robbery of a luxury jewellery store in Sydney as part of an alleged £1.4m (A$2.8m) insurance fraud plot has been sentenced to prison. Shanel Tofaeono, 39, pleaded guilty to detaining a person in company to commit a serious indictable offence and attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception.
The incident occurred in January 2022 at the Hilton hotel store in Sydney's CBD, owned by jeweller Michel Germani. According to court documents, Germani orchestrated the fake robbery because his business was struggling financially. Tofaeono and another accused, Mounir Helou, carried out the staged heist, tying up Germani and a female employee to make it appear genuine.
Judge John Pickering described how the female employee was grabbed by the neck and forced to empty the safe into bags before being bound with cable ties. 'Some of the jewellery fell onto the floor as her hands were shaking so much due to fear,' the judge said, noting that for her, it was a terrifying real robbery. Tofaeono was found to have been reckless as to her suffering.
The robbery lasted 11 minutes before Tofaeono and Helou left with bags of jewels. Police tracked them due to their 'amateur' naivety about CCTV coverage, leading to the arrest of six individuals. Tofaeono is the only one to plead guilty; the others, including Germani, his wife Coco, Helou, Andrea David Cusumano, and Giulia Penna, have pleaded not guilty and will face trial in May 2025.
Judge Pickering noted that Tofaeono was fundamental to the plot but gained minimal financial benefit compared to the £1.4m sought from the insurer. He discounted Tofaeono's sentence for his early guilty plea. Tofaeono was sentenced to a maximum of four years and seven months, with a non-parole period of two years and five months, making him eligible for release on 12 September 2025.
