An armed robber who dumped a loaded gun outside a
An armed robber who dumped a loaded gun outside
a primary school after a jewellery shop raid was jailed for life today (TUES).
Career criminal Karl Millwood, 31, threw away the
French-made revolver after stealing pnds stlg 83,000 in valuables.
A roadsweeper later found the weapon wrapped in a baseball cap during his cleaning round outside a school in north London.
When Millwood was arrested, police also found a lethally-adapted airgun down the front of his trousers.
The Brocock pistol had been modified to fire bullets and contained six live rounds.
Sentencing him today, the judge Mr Recorder Peter Rook, QC, told Millwood: ‘You were involved with other men in a serious armed robbery in a jewelles shop, a family business.
‘That must have been a terrifying experience for those working in the shop.
‘You had a gun with you.
You pulled it out from your waistband and pointed it at those working inside the shop, demanding money.
‘It is quite clear that you are a dangerous man from whom the public must be protected.
‘
The Old Bailey heard that Millwood pistol-whipped and kicked the struggling shop owner during the robbery at Facets jewellers in Hampstead on May 8 last year.
It was just three weeks after Millwood was released on licence from an eight-year sentence for armed robberies.
Prosecutor John Jones said the crook was with an armed accomplice when he entered the shop in Heath Street.
Millwood produced the revolver from his waistband and demanded money as owner Kiran Valjee and an assistant closed up for the day.
Mr Valjee was struck with the pistol when he tried to set off the alarm as the robbers looted the safe.
The two men then fled to a waiting Vauxhall Cavalier and sped away, the court heard.
Just 20 minutes after the raid, a woman in nearby Agincourt Road alerted police when her granddaughter found a blank-firing starting pistol used by Millwood’s partner in the street.
Millwood was arrested after his fingerprints were found on the window of the abandoned getaway car.
He was stopped in Green Lanes, Wood Green, in a car with his girlfriend and her child on June 19 last year.
Police found the loaded Brocock in his trousers, and four extra bullets in his pocket.
Millwood claimed it was for personal protection saying: ‘There are people out there who want to get me.
‘
The court heard neither the jewellery nor Millwood’s accomplice have ever been found.
Millwood, of Harvey Road, Hornsey, admitted robbery, possessing a firearm with intent, and having a firearm and ammunition in a public place.
A robbery and firearm charge in connection with a pnds stlg 150 armed raid on a grocery store in Stokenchurch, Bucks, on May 20 last year was left on file.
Millwood has criminal convictions for robbery dating back to 1992.
In December 1997, he was jailed at Harrow Crown Court for eight years for a string of armed raids.
ends
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