Raiders led police on chase after jewellery shop smash-and-grab
Masked gang were armed with an axe and a machete
TWO masked raiders, one armed with an axe and the other with a machete, smashed their way into a display window at a jewellers shop and grabbed 30 to 40 rings valued at between £1,000 and £26,000 each.
Passers-by bravely tried to intervene during the frightening smash-and-grab burglary, but the two men fled back to a waiting getaway car before being driven off at speed. The raiders abandoned that car and got into a second vehicle, but they were chased by police.
One of the burglars was later caught after he tried to hide in a woman’s kitchen and he claimed that he was running away from “bad people” because of a drugs debt, Hull Crown Court heard. Levi Friend, 20, admitted aggravated burglary and having a machete in public on December 8.
Austin Newman, prosecuting, said that the two raiders targeted a wellestablished, high-end jewellers in Prospect Street, Bridlington, which sold a range of expensive quality jewellery. Many of the items were displayed in the shop window, which was made of thickened glass and protected by automatic security shutters.
At about 2pm, a senior member of staff was outside the shop taking photographs of the window display.
“Suddenly, a red Ford hatchback vehicle pulled up nearby the shop,” said Mr Newman. Two men got out from the passenger side of the car. Both of them were wearing balaclavas or face masks. “One was carrying a large axe-type implement and the other was carrying a large knife, which has the appearance of a machete,” said Mr Newman.
The two men pulled back the staff member and then started to attack the shop window. One of them used the large axe and the other man – later identified from his clothes to be Friend – stood ready to help, with the machete held down by his side. “The attack on the toughened glass was successful to an extent, permitting a hole in the glass to be created, sufficient to allow the males to reach in and start pulling out items of jewellery from the ring section,” said Mr Newman.
The female staff member ran into a linked outlet next door and told colleagues to call the police and activate the security shutters in the main shop.
“Meanwhile, outside the shop, the burglars continued to pull rings out of the display window, while some brave members of the public, who were standing nearby, tried to harass the burglars and intervene in a bid to delay or distract them,” said Mr Newman. “Eventually, as the security shutters engaged, the two burglars were called away by the driver of the red Ford hatchback vehicle. “They both got back inside the vehicle, which was then driven off at speed the wrong way along the one-way street. The burglars abandoned the Ford hatchback a little further up the road and exchanged it for a second vehicle, a grey-colour Lotus.
Police patrol vehicles were dispatched and officers in one of the cars spotted the Lotus and began a pursuit. “This came to an end when that vehicle was also abandoned in the car park of Emmanuel Church. All the occupants got out and ran in different directions.”
A police officer chased Friend on foot into an alleyway but lost sight of him. However, the resident of a nearby property emerged to tell the officer that the defendant was in her kitchen. He had “entered her garden and asked her for sanctuary because he was running away from some drug dealers who intended him harm”, said Mr Newman.
The officer went to the property and arrested Friend, who had, by this time, taken off some of his clothes, including his face mask and gloves. He later told police: “I have a big drugs debt with bad people. I have been made to do bad things by bad people. I am scared because, if I go to prison, bad people could find me.”
During police interview, Friend stayed silent. The Ford hatchback was later found to have false registration plates and it had been stolen in the Morley area of Leeds that morning. It was assumed that Friend and the others had travelled over from Leeds to commit the burglary.
Friend had previous convictions, including two offences of robbery and another of possessing an offensive weapon, committed when he was aged 15. He had been given a referral order in December 2019.
Cathy Kioko-gilligan, mitigating, said that Friend pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. Friend, of Nineveh Gardens, Holbeck, Leeds, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years.