Instagram model jailed for strange masked robberies

Instagram model Monique Agostino has been incarcerated in the toughest women’s prison in New South Wales for a series of bizarre masked robberies with young men, as well as drug offenses, shoplifting and having a knife in a Target store.

The 25-year-old is incarcerated at the Silverwater Correctional Center for Women after being arrested last month on a warrant for the second time this year.

Agostino, who was warned last year by a veteran magistrate had his “life … going to the bathroom,” has worked as a real estate agent and modeling entrepreneur.

She posed in revealing outfits and a Catwoman costume for thousands of followers on her now-deleted Instagram page before being cast in prison green and brought to Silverwater last week.

Her life began to spiral out of control in 2018, when the then 22-year-old led several teenage boys to robberies on Sydney’s north shore.

Agostino and the boys donned black masks and opened, or tried to break, doors with a chisel.

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

He attempted raids at the nearby House of Fruit convenience store and neighboring Le Parisien Cafe.

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

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

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

Agostino was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison, with a minimum custody period of 18 months.

She was also found guilty on separate charges including possession of a knife at Target; Possessing the forbidden drug ice, possessing a restricted substance (three diazepam tablets), and stealing a $ 90 Supre jacket, all at the Blacktown Westpoint mall.

While serving her sentence, she appealed the severity of the sentence and was released on bail earlier this year.

Before the appeal was heard in late July, strike force detectives detained Agostino earlier that month with an outstanding warrant that he had violated the conditions of his bail.

Agostino’s appeal was later deferred until August 26, but when she did not appear in court for that, the appeal was dismissed.

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

Agostino’s lawyer, Pawel Kulisiewicz, requested restitution of his appeal and Agostino was sentenced again in the District Court of New South Wales.

Kulisiewicz told Judge Dina Yehia that Agostino’s offense had been “an 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 of 12 months with a six-month period without parole.

Last year, while in custody, Agostino told Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge that he had “anxiety and depression” behind bars.

Milledge told Agostino that he couldn’t keep blaming others for his offenses and bad decisions, and that he had a promise and could change his life.

With time served, Agostino will be released from Silverwater Prison in October.