LEE: POLITE ROBBERS JAILED FOR BETTING SHOP RAID

Two raiders who held up a bookmakers with screwdrivers and thanked the terrified cashier as they made off with £2,500 were jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half years today (Fri).

Charlie Lee, 27, and Jamie O’Neill, 34, told the lone shop assistant ‘Thanks for that, mate, you’re all right’ as they fled the Coral store in Orpington, Kent, with the cash.

They told him to give them a ‘ten minute head start’ and to tell police the shop had been robbed by ‘a bunch of black lads’.

The pair used newspapers to cover their faces and ripped out the CCTV system in an attempt to cover their tracks, the Old Bailey heard.

But they were spotted minutes by police minutes after leaving the store, still carrying the cash and other items take from the betting shop.

Karen Robinson, prosecuting, said the pair had targeted shop assistant Ben Holdsworth at around 5.20pm on April 10 this year.

‘One man asked him to explain a promotion that was going on,’ she told the court.

‘But he soon learned this was not the true reason for their entrance.’

Lee then told him: ‘I’m to tell you the truth.

‘I’m going to stab you if you don’t put all the money in this bag.’

Mr Holdsworth led them to the area behind the counter and handed over £500 from one of the safes, but told his attackers it would take 15 minutes to open the second safe.

‘They then spotted another large safe underneath the counter,’ said Miss Robinson.

‘O’Neill pulled a screwdriver out of it and handed it to Lee, who held it to the left side of Mr Holdsworth’s face and said, “Let’s do the machines”.’

They took coins and notes from the machines in the front of the shop, before helping themselves to the cash in the second safe once it could be opened, she added.

In total, the pair got away with £2,500.

As they were leaving, Lee told Mr Holdsworth: ‘Thanks for that, mate. You’re all right.

‘Give us a ten minute head start and tell the police it was a bunch of black lads.’

They dropped the loot and tried to flee after spotting a police car, but were caught.

Lee told officers he had got the cash by selling his Renault Megane but he and O’Neill both later admitted robbery.

Lee, a father of three, also asked for an offence of robbery at Ladbrokes in Orpington, during with £3,000 was taken, to be taken into account.

Stephen Nelson, defending, said: ‘There was no physical injury in this matter.

‘But that is not to diminish or reduce their culpability or the level of trauma the victim suffered.

‘There is considerable victim empathy and both defendants present themselves as contrite and accepting their responsibility.’

Lee, of (5) Rookery Gardens, St Mary Cray, Orpington, was jailed for four years, while O’Neill, of (3) Kingsgate Close, Orpington, was given a three-and-a-half year sentence.

Recorder Mark Lucraft QC told them: ‘I have little doubt this was an extremely frightening experience for the cashier, particularly as you had armed yourselves with screwdrivers.’

ends.