A man who claimed he robbed a woman be­cause he need­ed mon­ey for pub­lic trans­port has been jailed for 15 months.

Lewel Jar­dine, 39, was sen­tenced by Mas­ter Sarah De Sil­va af­ter plead­ing guilty to rob­bery with vi­o­lence dur­ing a vir­tu­al court ap­pear­ance.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the vic­tim was walk­ing along Fred­er­ick Boule­vard, Union Hall, around 7.45 am on De­cem­ber 8, 2025, when she was ap­proached by Jar­dine, who placed a sharp ob­ject to her neck.

He robbed her of an A05 cell­phone and ran off.

Jar­dine was ar­rest­ed by PC Main­got on Jan­u­ary 22 at Cy­press Cres­cent in Union Hall.

When ques­tioned, he replied: "Boss, I re­al­ly rob the la­dy, I want­ed ah lil cash to trav­el to work."

Cit­ing the na­ture and se­ri­ous­ness of the of­fence, pros­e­cu­tor An­tho­ny Ja­cob rec­om­mend­ed that he serve a cus­to­di­al sen­tence.

Ja­cob added that the vic­tim was of hum­ble means and was walk­ing to work as she did not have mon­ey to trav­el.

Jar­dine had been pre­vi­ous­ly charged with mur­der and re­leased from prison in 2023. He was sen­tenced to 15 months and 21 days' hard labour.