Alleged ram raid thief was 'job hunting'

The night before two men allegedly rammed a Sydney shopping centre in a botched bid to steal ATMs, they described the crime as "job hunting", a court has heard.

One of the men, Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai, 25, refused to stand for Judge Jane Culver as he pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering with intent to steal at the beginning of his trial at Parramatta District Court on Wednesday.

The crown alleges al-Ahmadzai, Wassim Fayad and a third man used two stolen vans to smash the glass doors of a shopping centre in Macquarie Park during the early hours of May 15, 2013, but failed to dislodge the ATMs by ramming them.

In her opening address, the crown prosecutor said during intercepted phone calls made the night before the offence, al-Ahmadzai and Fayad allegedly joked they were "dying for work" and agreed to go "job hunting".

The pair continued to speak in code when al-Ahmadzai called Fayad from prison in July 2013 while al-Ahmadzai was serving a sentence for an unrelated crime, the crown told the judge-only trial.

She said during one conversation, Fayad asked al-Ahmadzai if he remembered their "little fishing trip".

Fayad said the fish were "very, very, very hard to get out of the water" and told al-Ahmadzai they had "come back to bite us", the crown said.

Fayad also asked if al-Ahmadzai had seen "a flash", referring to a speed camera that picked up their getaway car which was owned by Fayad's son, she said.

CCTV footage, witness accounts and alleged Google searches made from al-Ahmadzai's mobile eight hours after the crime with terms like 'Macquarie shopping centre ATM' will be used as evidence.

Al-Ahmadzai's barrister Ronald Driels said the accused wasn't at the shopping centre during the time of the ram raid, as he was adhering to a strict night time curfew.

"At that time he was on bail for another matter," he said.

Mr Driels said Fayad had already pleaded guilty to charges related to the offence.