A lower-level Wests Tigers player was the driver during an armed robbery in which a gun was allegedly discharged and one of the victims was told their friend had been slain.
Iverson Fuatimau, a Western Suburbs winger who trained with the Tigers’ first-team squad during the summer of 2022 after being awarded a train-and-trial contract, now faces prison time after pleading guilty to aggravated break and enter and robbery in company. The 23-year-old will be punished next week at Campbelltown District Court.
Fuatimau drove two other guys charged with home invasion in St Helens Park in a maroon Haval H2 in May 2022.
According to the statement of accepted facts obtained by this masthead in reference to the proceedings against Fuatimau, the two guys leaped the back fence of the residence while Fuatimau stayed in the car on lookout. One of the residents, who happened to be home at the time, observed the men outside and persuaded two of his friends to come over.
The two males allegedly broke into the house, one brandishing a silver revolver, with only the inhabitant escaping. The men allegedly endangered the lives of the occupants’ friends while Fuatimau waited in the car. Both victims are said to have had their pockets emptied and were tied up in separate areas of the house.
According to police, the two men demanded to know where “papers” and other valuables were stored, despite the fact that neither of them lived there or knew where they were.
It is also claimed that one of the males displayed a knife and the other a revolver. The gunman allegedly held the gun on the victim’s temple in the living room “three or four times and threatened to shoot [him] in the head and put a hole in him.”
The gunman allegedly returned to the victim in the ensuite, placed it to the other victim’s head, cocked the pistol twice, and extracted two of the bullets. According to police, one of the bullets dropped in the shower, and the gunman picked up the other one, saying, “there was one bullet going through each of your heads if you didn’t tell me what I wanted.”
He then allegedly reloaded the weapon, locked the door to the ensuite, proceeded into the main bedroom’s walk-in closet, and discharged the handgun into the wall, narrowly missing one of the victims’ heads.
The man allegedly told the victim in the bathroom, “I just put a bullet through [your friend’s] head.” “You’re up next.”
It is also claimed that the man continued to threaten the victim while he and the other man looted the house. According to police, the other man then stated, “We have to put holes in both of them now and finish them because they saw our faces.”
The males ultimately departed after stealing two handbags, old mobile phones, an iPad, jewelry, a bottle of perfume, and a package of Christmas lights, according to police, but not before threatening another of the residents’ friends who came on the scene after responding to the SOS call.
Fuatimau responded by yelling, “Let’s go, let’s get out of here!”
According to police, they instead stole the automobile of one of the men who was being held at gunpoint in the house. When police eventually pulled them over, one of the two males allegedly claimed he was the “victim” of an abduction.
Police said they discovered a silver.38 super automatic calibre Strayer Voigt handgun with a spent bullet when they checked the allegedly stolen automobile.
Fuatimau, who was driving in the Haval, was apprehended. The Crown does not claim that Fuatimau was aware of the presence or usage of weapons during the event.
Fuatimau, who had three appearances for the Magpies in 2022, was expected to make his NRL debut before the incident. Tigers winger David Nofoaluma commented about Fuatimau’s impact during the preseason in February of that year.
“We also have a young kid called Iverson Fuatimau, who has had a few training sessions playing on my inside and doing a good job,” Nofoaluma said while discussing outside back alternatives with News Corp.
Fuatimau is no longer under contract with the Tigers. The Tigers did not respond to requests for comment. Fuatimau hired prominent lawyer Elias Tabchouri to represent him. Tabchouri did not respond.
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