Betting shop robber gets 5 years!

Considering its St Paddys day, did you hear about the Irishman that broke into a bookies after hours?

He lost 20 quid!


Betting shop robber sentenced to five years


A CUMBRIAN man who robbed a betting shop and then sent flowers to two female members of staff as an apology has been jailed for five years.

Paul Woods, 29, who said he was desperate to raise cash to repay a drugs debt, carried out the raid on the Cleator Moor branch of Ladbrokes with Nathaniel Rudd, 20, who was sent to a young offenders' institution for four years.

Both men pleaded guilty to the robbery, and to burgling a nearby off-licence, on November 20 last year.

John Coffell, prosecuting at Carlisle Crown Court, said the betting shop staff were about to lock-up when two men brandishing sticks burst in and demanded cash.

Before escaping with £3,650, they ordered the two women to hand over their handbags. The robbery was filmed by the shop's CCTV cameras.

Gerry Jones, representing Woods, of Cleator Moor, said his client had been frightened by threats of violence against his family made by people he owed money to.

"That provided the motivation to obtain money quickly and hence the commission of the robbery," said Mr Jones. "He accepts full responsibility for the offence."

He said Woods regretted the robbery, adding: "His remorse was such that he asked his family to take flowers to the two assistants in the shop to express his sorrow for what he'd done.

Betting shop manager praised by judge


A CORAL deputy manager won praise from a judge after a man who knifed a punter in his Bradford betting shop was sent to prison for nine years.

Judge Jonathan Rose hailed Andrew Robertshaw for his courage after he stepped in when Mohammed Ashraf was attacked by Wayne Richards in January of last year.

Richards, 37, lost his temper when Ashraf refused to lend him £10 in the Coral shop in Little Horton and then cheered when his horse lost, a court heard. He punched him, slid a knife from his sleeve and slashed him across the head.

When Ashraf returned to the shop four months later, Richards lay in ambush and stabbed him in the back.

The attacker, a welder from Beckside in Shelf, then tried to scare Robertshaw into not giving evidence against him.

Richards was convicted at Bradford Crown Court last month of two offences of wounding with intent to cause Ashraf grievous bodily harm, two of having an offensive weapon and one of intimidating Robertshaw.

In passing sentence, the judge said it was "nothing short of a miracle" that Ashraf was not more seriously injured in the first attack, and described the later stabbing as "a vicious, violent and dangerous attack on an unarmed man."