Guard posed as victim in inside job

A Chubb security guard is facing jail for helping robbers organise three attacks on his employer's armoured vans in Melbourne.

In one case the security guard, Rhys Tilbrook, 33, posed as a victim when a man armed with an imitation pistol attacked him and a colleague and ran away with $A170,000.

However, the thieves failed in their next two raids, one of which was described by a defence lawyer as the "most stupid, absurd" attempt at a robbery he had ever seen.

Tilbrook provided associates, including his former girlfriend Anne Margaret Giacominato, 28, with details about times, routes and how much cash Chubb vans would be carrying.

The robbery that netted $A170,000 took place on November 17, 2008, when Tilbrook went in a Chubb van to the Westpac bank in bayside Beaumaris.

Timothy Adams, 39, of Noble Park, is charged with robbing him - but is contesting those charges - while Giacominato has admitted to being the getaway driver.

"Adams ran up to Tilbrook and demanded the money. The other security guard gave chase, but Tilbrook told him to stop," prosecutor Darrin Cain told the Melbourne County Court on Thursday.

"They agreed to a three-way split with $A50,000 each going to Tilbrook and Giacominato and $70,000 to Adams."

However, the group failed in their next two attempts to rob vans.

Another man, Ben Aslin, tried to rob Chubb security guards at Melbourne's Southland shopping centre on February 2 last year, but he was unable to hold on to the bag containing the cash.

The following month Giacominato and another woman tried to rob Chubb guards with a fake pistol at the Century City Walk shopping centre in Glen Waverley but were overpowered by the guards.

"It was profoundly ill-conceived and poorly executed," Giacominato's lawyer, Paul Guggenheimer, told the court.

"I've never seen such a stupid thing in about 20 years."

However, Mr Cain said "sloppy execution" was no reason to impose light sentences as the women had "planned and waited" to carry out the robbery attempt.

Giacominato and Tilbrook had a four-year-old son and maintained a friendship which led to them planning the robberies, the court was told.

"They ended up discussing the separate financial problems in their lives," Tilbrook's lawyer, Jane Dixon, told the court.

"She had developed a circle of friends where this thing (crime) occurs, people that were driving stolen cars and dealing drugs."

The court was packed with people, many supporting Tilbrook.

Tilbrook and Giacominato pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and theft and attempted armed robbery and theft.

Aslin pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and theft.

All three were remanded in custody by Judge Jim Duggan to be sentenced later this month.

- AAP