When a Telarah man was refused payment at Centrelink he went on a tirade telling staff he would “smash up the joint” in front of his four-year-old daughter.
Robert Thomas Walton, of McDonald Street, went into the Maitland branch of Centrelink on September 9, last year, and told staff his previous payments had been incorrect and he urgently needed money.
When a staff member refused, Walton said: “I will smash up the joint if I don’t get payment today, I need to fix the struts in my car,” according to police documents tendered to the court.
He said: “If you don’t f****ing sort my payment out today I’ll smash up the joint.”
A staff member activated the duress alarm and police responded immediately.
Before police arrived Walton went to a customer service phone and spoke to another officer, but slammed down the phone as other customers were ushered to a different section of the branch for their safety.
Asked repeatedly by police to lower his voice for his daughter’s sake, Walton said “these f****ing c***s f****ed up my payments, I haven’t seen my other kids for a fortnight now.”
In Maitland Local Court yesterday the 31-year-old told magistrate Sharron Crews he had been waiting at the branch for an hour and a half before the incident.
“Do you understand these people are only doing their job, would you like to be a Centrelink officer?” magistrate Sharron Crews asked.
“They cop a lot.”
He told her “yeah, I’ve copped a lot over the last twelve months through my payments.”
Walton pleaded guilty to intimidating a Centrelink officer and was placed on a 15-month good behaviour bond. For using offensive language in a public place he was convicted without further penalty.
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