Two Belfast men were today handed six year sentences over the robbery of a cash-in-transit security guard.
'Career criminal' William Evans and John Thompson were told they will spend three years in prison followed by a similar period on supervised release on their release from custody. Evans, 43, of Grainne House on the New Lodge Road in the north of the city and 44-year-old Thompson of Townsend Street, had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery.
Belfast Crown Court heard that at 8.40 am on January 26, 2021, a G4S guard was at the Tesco Express store on Great Victoria Street in the city centre. Evans and Thompson had parked their black Ford Focus car just feet behind the G4S security truck.
Prosecution lawyer Gareth Purvis said: "The moment of the robbery was extremely brief...an almost instantaneous snatch of the cashbox from the grasp of the G4S employee from behind.
"He was focused on the drop safe at the rear of the van to place the cashbox inside.''
A police CCTV camera captured the driver of the Focus getting out of the car, going into a nearby telephone box and waiting for the G4S guard to leave the store before carrying out the robbery.
The robber then got into the passenger seat and the Focus headed towards Shaftsbury Square. Around 90 minutes later, the car was detected on the Monagh Bypass in west Belfast where police gave chase.
The driver was "travelling at speed'' before losing control and crashing on the Upper Springfield Road. Evans exited from the front passenger door while Thompson emerged from a rear window.
Cell site analysis pinpointed the defendants' mobile phones being present at the robbery scene.
With a tracking device fitted to the cashbox, G4S directed police to a nearby address at Monagh Drive. Police located the empty cashbox in a rear shed and Martin Anthony Braniff, 47, who lived at the property, was found at the rear of the house while Keith Martin Murry, 43, of Upper Suffolk Road in West Belfast, was found in an upstairs bedroom.
Both men previously pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods, namely £3,480 from the cashbox and on Tuesday each received two year sentences suspended for three years.
Mr Purvis confirmed to the court that none of the cash has been recovered. Between them the four defendants have almost 400 criminal convictions.
Evan has 98 previous convictions including robberies in 2005 and in 2009 for which he received respective sentences of five years in custody and two years on probation and six years in prison and 18 months on probation. Thompson has amassed 212 convictions with five entries for burglary, 13 for fraud, along with convictions for forgery, theft and handling stolen goods.
Braniff has 11 previous convictions which included offences of going equipped for theft and receiving stolen goods. Mr Purvis said Murray has 76 previous convictions with four entries for going equipped for theft and seven for theft.
Following submissions from defence barristers for the four accused, Judge Peter Irvine KC said the "planning of the robbery was limited in scope and somewhat opportunistic. Nevertheless there was clearly a degree of organisation required to commit this particular offence''.
He added: "The robbery itself showed little sophistication. The two robbers failed to switch off their mobile phones and remained in the Focus car for approximately an hour and a half after the robbery.
"No weapon was used to affect the robbery and no threats were made to the G4S employee. Indeed no injuries were sustained by him.''
Judge Irvine said Evans was assessed as a high likelihood of reoffending who has a "substantial criminal record'' which included two previous robbery convictions.
"He has 98 previous convictions and is in effect a career criminal to say the very least,'' added the judge.
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