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Home / World

Instagram model jailed for bizarre masked robberies

By Candace Sutton
news.com.au·
22 Sep, 2020 05:00 PM3 mins to read

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Monique Agostino has been jailed for a series of break-ins and thefts. Photo / Supplied

Monique Agostino has been jailed for a series of break-ins and thefts. Photo / Supplied

Instagram model Monique Agostino has been jailed in NSW's toughest women's prison for a series of bizarre masked robberies with juvenile males, as well as drug offences, shoplifting and having a knife in a Target store.

The 25-year-old is imprisoned in Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre after being arrested last month on a warrant for the second time this year.

Agostino, who a veteran magistrate warned last year had her "life … going down the toilet", has worked as a real estate agent and modelling entrepreneur.

She posed in revealing outfits and a Catwoman costume for thousands of followers on her now deleted Instagram page before being placed in prison greens and inducted at Silverwater last week.

Her life began spiralling out of control in 2018, when the then-22-year-old drove several teenage male youths to burglaries they committed on Sydney's north shore.

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Agostino and the boys donned black masks and prised open, or attempted to jemmy, doors using a chisel.

Caught on CCTV, Agostino — who has also posed on Instagram in a Catwoman costume with a mask — broke into the Pound of Pizza restaurant at Killarney Heights early on November 6, 2018.

Monique Agostino committed break and enters at cafes and food stores. Photo / Supplied
Monique Agostino committed break and enters at cafes and food stores. Photo / Supplied

She attempted break-ins at the nearby House of Fruit convenience store and the neighbouring Le Parisien Cafe.

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On the same day, Agostino was involved in the break-in of the Stanley Street Cafe at St Ives where A$300 and a credit card were stolen.

She later used the credit card to buy food worth AU$11.55 at McDonald's Brookvale.

On November 24, 2018, Agostino was involved in the break-in at the Forestville Bakery where A$1000 cash was stolen.

Agostino was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, with a minimum custodial period of 18 months.

She was also convicted on separate charges including possessing a knife in Target; possessing the prohibited drug ice, possessing a restricted substance (three diazepam tablets) and stealing a A$90 jacket from Supre — all at Blacktown Westpoint Shopping Centre.

While serving time, she appealed the sentence's severity and was released on bail early this year.

Before the appeal was due to be heard in late July, Agostino was stopped early that month by strike force detectives on an outstanding warrant that she had breached her bail conditions.

Monique Agostino is now an inmate. Photo / Supplied
Monique Agostino is now an inmate. Photo / Supplied

Agostino's appeal was later adjourned until August 26, but when she didn't turn up to court for that, the appeal was dismissed.

A warrant was issued and she was arrested on September 5.

Agostino's lawyer Pawel Kulisiewicz applied to reinstate her appeal and Agostino was resentenced in the NSW District Court.

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Kulisiewicz told Judge Dina Yehia that Agostino's offending had been "amateur hour" and with stealing credit cards and then using them "they were always going to get caught".

Judge Yehia reduced Agostino's sentence to a maximum 12 months with a six month non-parole period.

Last year while in custody Agostino told Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge she had "anxiety and depression" behind bars.

Milledge told Agostino she could not keep blaming others for her offences and bad decisions, and that she had promise and could turn her life around.

With time served, Agostino will be due for release from Silverwater prison in October.

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