Ashley Brian Figura, 32, has been handed a jail sentence over his role in a home invasion. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
A group of weapon-wielding intruders sent a home’s occupants running for safety or fleeing the building.
But one woman who was asleep when they broke in was threatened at knife-point in a home invasion that netted the intruders a score of little more than $250 cash.
Ashley Brian Figura, 32, pleaded guilty to burglary over his role before he was sentenced by the ACT Supreme Court.
Acting Justice James Stewart, in his recently published decision, said Figura and three others, including a teenager, were spotted in two stolen cars early on 4 March 2025.
Both cars were speeding at about 113 km/h in an 80 km/h zone.
The four parked the stolen cars, then covered their faces and armed themselves with baseball bats, a machete, a crowbar and a hatchet. They walked over to an apartment complex on Summerland Circuit in Kambah at around 6 am and started trying to force their way into a unit.
While doing so, Figura smashed a CCTV camera with his baseball bat.
Five people were inside the unit, and when they heard intruders outside, three ran to the garage, locked the door and called Triple Zero. A fourth person ran out of the unit through the back door, jumped over a fence and fled.
The fifth person, a woman, was sleeping in her bedroom.
The intruders broke in and two of them went into the woman’s bedroom, pointed a knife at her and threatened to stab her if she didn’t tell them where the money was.
The court’s decision does not state which two intruders went into her room.
The woman told the pair there was money in her drawer and they took the $250 cash.
“She endured a terrifying experience in her home – a place where she was entitled to feel safe and secure,” Acting Justice Stewart said.
“The other victims would also be expected to have experienced fear and trauma.”
The intruders also stole a handbag, makeup bag and mobile phone before fleeing when one of the people in the garage yelled out that they had called police.
“The motivation for the offending was the theft of money and valuable goods,” Acting Justice Stewart said.
“The offending was not sophisticated, but it was relatively well-planned.
“It involved the use of two separate vehicles, a group of four offenders, pre-planned attire and weapons that were taken for the sole purpose of effecting the offending.”
Figura expressed sorrow to the victims, was using drugs at the time and has mental health struggles. He also endured severe childhood deprivation.
“That experience has had a profound effect on his adult life – not the least of which is his ongoing substance abuse,” Acting Justice Stewart said.
The ACT Magistrates Court had already handed him a lengthy prison sentence in May 2026 for unrelated offences.
Acting Justice Stewart sentenced him to an extra 29 months’ jail for the burglary. His total sentence is now seven years and five months’ jail, with a three-year and two-month non-parole period that was backdated to account for time served.
This means he can be released from May 2029.
Wish him well in the new role View