A crooked cop used information he learnt through his job to carry out a meticulously planned and brutal home invasion against an elderly man – storming into his property, binding him with cable ties, then robbing him of $100,000.

The NSW Police officer, who can only be referred to as ‘MA’ for legal reasons, was last week sentenced to ten years behind bars over the horrific 2020 attack in far west NSW. 

But the court imposed a gag order to ban the media from naming the cop – and his victim – for 20 years. 

The District Court last week heard the saga began when the cop was involved in executing a search of the victim’s home in 2020.

The victim was being investigated over a child sex offence and was later convicted.  

But during the raid on the paedophile’s home, officers found a safe containing a large amount of cash, which was unconnected to the sex offence.

Four years later, the police officer and an accomplice borrowed a van to drive from Sydney to the same regional town with the intention of stealing the cash.

The pair left their mobile phones behind and took jerry cans of fuel to try to avoid stopping at petrol stations to prevent being detected by police. 

After the hours-long drive, they arrived at the house and staked it out.

The cop – a nine-year career veteran – then put a stocking or balaclava over his head and broke into the house that night, fully aware the 78-year-old victim was at home. 

The cop pulled open the front door, went inside and confronted the elderly man while he was alone in the kitchen.

He then forced him face down onto the floor before cable-tying his hands behind his back.

His sidekick then joined him in the kitchen and tightly cable-tied the victim’s feet together, before binding black tape around his hands. 

The cop then went to the room with the safe and began ransacking it, as the pair barked orders for the victim to reveal the key’s location. 

‘Stop lying. If you don’t give us the key to the safe, we’ll chuck [you] in the car and take [you] out to the dam,’ the cop’s sidekick warned, before kicking the victim in the head.  

When the victim eventually gave up the location of the key, the cop opened the safe, stole $100,000 in cash, before the pair fled the scene. 

Ten minutes later, the victim managed to call a neighbour, who rushed to the property and found the elderly man, bloody and bruised, lying on the floor, still bound by the cable ties. 

Meanwhile, the robbers used backroads to drive to another town in western NSW, where they disposed of clothing, shoes, gloves, and torches in bushland, before travelling back to Sydney and returning their van to the cop’s friend.

Despite their efforts to avoid detection, the cop was later arrested and charged, and later pleaded guilty to aggravated break, enter, and commit serious indictable offence. 

Police were able to recover $80,000 of the stolen cash, but $20,000 is still missing.  

Judge Robert Newlinds said the crime involved ‘significant planning and serious attempts to avoid detection’. 

Judge Newlinds said the robbers subjected the victim to pain, fear and violence, which has now left him feeling unsafe in his own home. 

He said the offence involved ‘gratuitous cruelty’, with the victim’s arms twisted behind his back, his hands and feet bound, and his head kicked, which were not necessary to carry out the crime. 

‘He was an old man compared to the offenders. None of this cruelty was necessary for the robbery to succeed,’ Mr Newlinds said.

‘The victim could have easily been controlled by the two younger men.’

Mr Newlinds said the victim, who still maintains his innocence about the sex offence despite being found guilty, lost friends and acquaintances in the wake of the attack.

He insists it was not from his conviction, but because of public perception around why he was targeted. 

‘The victim had served his time for his crime and was entitled to be left alone to live his life without being bashed and robbed by a police officer involved in investigating his crime,’ he said. 

‘In some quarters, the offender has been elevated into a hero status, whilst the victim has been branded the villain. This is, not just wrongheaded, it is highly unusual…

‘Ordinarily, right-thinking members of the general public would feel sorry for the victim and consider the offender to be a serious criminal.’

The court heard the cop suffers from PTSD from being exposed to traumatic events during his time in the police force. 

Due to his deteriorating mental state, he was medically discharged from the force nine months before the robbery and his life began spiraling out of control as he binged on up to 25 drinks a day and gambled away tens of thousands of dollars. 

Mr Newlinds said the cop had no prior convictions and the offending appeared to be ‘out of character’, and at least ‘in part’ a consequence of the mental health issues stemming from his time on the force. 

He also noted the cop was in an isolated cell in prison and accepted he had shown remorse and shame for his actions, although he has not offered to repay the victim the missing $20,000. 

Taking into consideration the cop’s remorse, good character, mental issues, guilty plea, and the likelihood he will suffer in prison as a former cop, Mr Newlinds found there were special circumstances to reduce aspects of his sentence.

Mr Newlinds sentenced the police officer to ten years behind bars, with a significantly reduced non-parole period of six years, backdated to June 2025. 

With time already served, the cop will be eligible for release in June 2031.