Pasquale Lanciana, mastermind of $2.3million Armaguard van heist, launches appeal
Kickboxing champ who masterminded a notorious $2.3 million robbery from an Armaguard van is now fighting to get out of prison less than two years after being convicted of the famous robbery
- Pasquale Lanciana will appeal 2021 conviction
- He says the jurors disagreed on one verdict
- Lanciana was convicted of planning a $2.3 million robbery
The mastermind behind an infamous robbery in Melbourne that saw $2.3 million stolen from an Armaguard van nearly three decades ago has appealed.
Pasquale ‘No Mercy’ Lanciana was sentenced to 14 years in prison in September 2021, after a County Court jury found him guilty of organizing or participating in the June 1994 robbery, wrongly imprisoning the guards and money laundering of the money.
Five thieves posing as workmen had set up an elaborate roadworks wearing goggles and helmets. They started a concrete saw to distract an Armaguard van driver when they stopped at the fake site.
The group then handcuffed three guards at gunpoint and placed plastic bags over their heads before driving off through Richmond’s backstreets.
The stolen money was never recovered.
Lanciana, a former kickboxer, was convicted of armed robbery, false imprisonment and seven counts of money laundering and faces 10 years before being eligible for parole.
Pasquale ‘No Mercy’ Lanciana (pictured) was sentenced to 14 years in prison in September 2021
He has appealed both his conviction and his sentence, alleging that jurors were improperly directed before withdrawing to deliberate their verdict.
His attorney Tim Game SC told the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that the prosecution’s directions to the jury at the Laciana trial may have led individual jurors to reach their guilty verdicts for various reasons.
“You can have any number of jurors, say seven, find him guilty of being present but not organizing, and any number of jurors (find him) not being present but being organized,” he told the Melbourne court.
“Based on these indications, you now have different actions… with different bases of liability.”
Lanciano appealed both his conviction and sentence, claiming jurors had been improperly directed before withdrawing to deliberate on the 2021 verdict
Mr Game said if some jurors found he was not guilty of planning the robbery then he should be acquitted.
Prosecutor Diana Piekusis KC said there was evidence at trial that Lanciana organized the robbery and “this is not a circumstance in which one theory can exonerate the alternative theory.”
Lanciana, who appeared from prison via video link, is the only person ever charged with the robbery.
He was arrested in 2016 and spent more than two years in custody before being released on bail when the jury failed to reach a verdict at his first trial in 2019.
Judges David Beach, Stephen McLeish and Maree Kennedy adjourned the court to consider their decision.
Percy ‘No Mercy’ Lanciana (right) was a feared kickboxer around the time he was involved in the robbery