Bid to quash Vic murder life term fails

A former stockbroker who murdered a security guard while robbing an armoured truck has lost a bid to quash his life sentence.

Hugo Rich, 61, shot Erwin Kastenberger dead in 2005, despite the Chubb guard having handed over $162,000 in cash.

Rich was found guilty of murder and jailed for life in 2009, with a minimum of 30 years, but appealed his conviction and sentence almost immediately.

Court of Appeal Justices Geoffrey Nettle, Marcia Neave and Robert Osborn rejected his application on Friday, ruling no miscarriage of justice had occurred at his trial.

Rich and his co-accused, Leonard Ryan, carrying guns and clad in balaclavas, attacked Mr Kastenberger and another security guard as they arrived to deliver the cash to a suburban shopping centre bank in March 2005.

Threatened at gunpoint, Mr Kastenberger threw the bag at the robbers.

Rich then knocked him to the floor with his gun and shot him.

Sentencing Rich in 2009, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry called him irredeemable and said he had no prospect of rehabilitation.

"What you did was kill Mr Kastenberger consciously and deliberately in circumstances where the money, which was the target of your plan, had been surrendered," Justice Lasry said.

Rich, formerly of Newport, worked as an insurance salesman before teaching himself about the stock market and working for a major Melbourne firm.

His co-accused, Ryan, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and gave evidence against Rich at trial.

Ryan, 41, was sentenced to eight years jail with a minimum of six years.