TERROR RAID
Robbers jailed for 200 years
A gang of thugs who raided a travellers’ site while heavily armed have been jailed for a total of over 200 years.
The 14 robbers terrified men, women, children and babies at the site in Lenham.
A judge described it as “bold, audacious, determined and exceptional”.
Maidstone Crown Court heard in a series of trials how the raiders wore masks and went equipped with tape, latex gloves, torches, cable ties and demolition bars bought from B&Q and Poundland shortly before.
Victims were bound and one couple had guns held to their heads in front of their young son, who awoke on hearing the commotion. He pleaded: “Daddy, please don’t let them kill me.”
Dad-of-seven Moses Smith was battered with a truncheon and handgun and then kicked and struck with a crowbar and baseball bat and stabbed in his arm and thigh.
But the attackers fled from Wheat Gratten Stable Yards when the residents fought back.
They gave chase across a field and rammed get-away cars, leaving some so damaged they could not be driven away.
The yard situated in the countryside was stormed in the late evening of April 26, 2016.
It was alleged the armed robbers also brandished a sawn-off shotgun and handgun, although there were no convictions for firearms offences.
Police were able to identify 17 suspects and 14 were eventually convicted and jailed for conspiracy to rob in trials spanning over two years.
The case can now be reported in full after the final sentence was passed on one of the main organisers, Junior Shawki Tamakloe.
The 32-year-old, from London, admitted conspiracy to rob and was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years.
Two of the14 came from Tunbridge Wells - Darren Myers, 33, of Valley Road and Jake Jenks, 23, of Allan Close.
Myers was jailed for 21 years and Jenks for 14 years.
Previous prison sentences were: Aaron Mayers, 31, from Hackney, East London, who was given 16 years; Nana Danquah, 31, from Potters Bar, Hertford- shire, 18 years; Connor Miller, 22, no fixed address, 13 years; Lee Baker, 29, from Eastbourne, 12 years; Nyake Alieu, 33, from Eastbourne, 16 years; Brady Dewson, 26, 12 years; Ahmed Ali, 23, from London, 13 years; Jheryl Long, 24, from London, 16 years; Glenn Kenny, 25, from Suffolk, nine years and four months; John Smillie, 25, from Walthamstow, East London, and Faisal Issah, 24, from Tottenham, North London, 14 years each.
Prosecutor Nina Ellin told jurors the masked raiders were clad in dark clothing and armed with weapons, including a sawn- off shotgun, a handgun, iron bars and a machete.
“They demanded large sums of money at gunpoint,” she said. “They terrorised the occupants of the caravans, which included women and young children. One man was brutally attacked.”
The victims fought back as shots were fired, vehicles were rammed “and the attackers withdrew into the night”.
Groups of the robbers came from London, Kent, Sussex and Essex before they all converged on the yard.
Vincent Stickings, 31, from Thamesmead, South London, Kieon Barker, 24, of Stoke Newington, North East London, and Irasto Yoxall, 32, of Bethnal Green, East London, were cleared of any involvement.
Judge Julian Smith said when passing sentence on Monday: “This offence was clearly the result of a good deal of planning and careful organisation. It was a bold, even audacious, plan involving a mass attack on the traveller site by a group of armed, masked and determined attackers following a shared plan, and prepared to use significant force, either themselves or intending that others in their group should do so.”