A man who used a screwdriver to "camper-jack" a French couple during a drug-fuelled crime spree in southeast Queensland has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Anthony Brian Melit, 41, earlier admitted to committing a string of offences, some relating to the robbery of the campervan.
Melit and Karyn Louise Crittenden stole the van from an isolated camping site near Woodford, north of Brisbane, on May 14 last year.
The father-of-three approached the tourists asking for a bottle of water, but then aggressively told them - while holding a 10cm long screwdriver - he was going to take their van.
Melit and Crittenden fled in the vehicle, stealing the couple's possession including clothes and passports.
Their crime spree continued for about a week with Melit trying to rob a service station attendant at knifepoint after putting fuel into the campervan.
Brisbane District Court Judge Geraldine Dann on Thursday sentenced Melit to four-and-a-half years' imprisonment for the armed robbery.
He was also handed a four-year jail sentence, to be served cumulatively, for the dangerous operation of a vehicle in August 2017.
On that occasion he deliberately drove his car at a group of people, leaving a man with significant injuries.
Judge Dann said the bulk of Melit's offending was "substantially if not entirely connected to the use of drugs".
"Your life experience ... should have equipped you to understand that turning to drugs and crime was not an appropriate way to deal with your problems," she told Melit.
He will be eligible for parole in March 2022.
Crittenden earlier pleaded guilty to six charges relating to a crime spree that lasted more than a week.
It included robbing a woman of her car in the Currumbin Fair Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast the day before the campervan theft.
Crittenden was given a head sentence of three-and-a-half years' imprisonment for the armed robbery in the car park.
She was also handed a two-year jail sentence to be served concurrently for robbery in company over the campervan theft.
The jail terms were fully suspended for four years.
Crittenden was also ordered to pay $6800 in compensation to the French couple for the van and their belongings.
