A Perth man barged into a neighbour’s home armed with a toy gun.
Camera IconA Perth man barged into a neighbour’s home armed with a toy gun. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Perth man jailed over toy gun home invasion

AAPMidland Kalamunda Reporter

A PERTH man who terrified three children and a woman during a home invasion aimed at scaring his “gossiping” neighbour has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a West Australian prison.

Anandkumar Sivapragasam, 37, pretended to be a delivery man when he approached the Forrestfield unit on December 19 wearing a motorcycle helmet and brandishing a toy gun.

There were two girls, aged eight and six, and a four-year-old boy in the home at the time, and the incident was initially considered a possible child abduction case.

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Sivapragasam pointed the toy gun at the 61-year-old woman’s head and unsuccessfully tried to cover her mouth with tape before leaving, the West Australian District Court heard on Thursday.

He later told police he wanted to scare his neighbour, but she was not home, so he confronted her relative. Sivapragasam said the neighbour had subjected his wife and a friend to “degrading comments”, which had caused stress, and he wanted to “give her something else to talk about.”

Judge Simon Stone described it as a terrifying and shocking ordeal.

“You said that your neighbour is a good person. However, she gossips a lot,” he said.

“It makes no sense what you did. No sense at all to subject people to such a frightening ordeal in the safety of their home.”

Sivapragasam must serve at least 15 months behind bars before he can be eligible for parole.