John Lloyd-Richards led Laura Hollingbery for the Crown in prosecuting a gang of armed robbers in the West Midlands with all six convicted.
John Lloyd-Richards led Laura Hollingbery for the Crown in prosecuting a gang who, between August 2021 and February 2022 targeted commercial properties including Public Houses, a Post Office, branches of the Co-Op, Tesco Express and One Stop shops with cash, alcohol and cigarettes the primary targets.
A more sinister aspect to the offending was that the Defendants carried with them weapons including machetes and knives and used them to threaten innocent shop workers and customers doing nothing more than going about their grocery shopping.
This was a complex, circumstantial case covering some 58 distinct events. A key component of the offending was the Defendants’ reliance on vehicles. Across the breadth of the case stolen vehicles were used to enable the Defendants to travel to and from the offence locations. There was a level of sophistication to the utilisation of vehicles in that they had usually recently been stolen and were put on false number plates. Not a random number plate however, but one that matched the make, model and even colour of the vehicle stolen. Clearly, significant planning went into the offending which was designed to frustrate the efforts of the Police in tracking down the offenders.
This prosecution required a careful piecing together of all the circumstantial evidence in the case including CCTV footage, expert cell site analysis, ANPR records and very limited forensic evidence.
The trial of five Defendants took place in February and March 2025 with four of those Defendants pleading guilty on days 7 and 9 of the trial. One further Defendant pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. The final Defendant was convicted by the Jury.
The six Defendants will be sentenced in June 2025.
