Two wouldbe bandits captured in a Flying Squad am

Two wouldbe bandits captured in a Flying Squad ambush out
side the Bank of England were jailed for a total of 24 years
today (Wed).

Brothers, Neil, 21, and Mark Jones, 28, a former soldier in

the elite ‘Paras’ (Parachute Regiment) had been tailed by under
cover officers from the word go.

They were even clandestinely photographed in the sohpisti
cated operation by armed detectives, the Old Bailey had heard.

The officers moved in as the pair approached a branch of the
Royal Bank of Scotland in Threadneedle Street, City of London, on
the morning of January 31, this year.

At gunpoint the brothers were spreadeagled on the pavement
and searched.

Inside a holdall one of them was carrying officers
found an unloaded sawn-off shotgun.

Neither put up a struggle, the court heard.

Jailing each brother for 12 years the judge Mr Recorder
Michael Stuart-Moore told them their plot to rob the bank had
been ‘nipped in the bud.

‘
And had it not been ‘for the prompt action of the police’
they would have gone on to terrorise the bank staff.

The judge added that ‘few weapons are calculated to strike
terror into the hearts of people quite like a sawn-off shotgun.

‘
The jury had heard how plain-clothed officers had followed
the brothers from Mark Jones’ address in Rossiter Road, Balham,
sw London.

They were tailed as they travelled by tube to Moorgate
station where they went into a cafe and got something to eat.

They then set off for Threadneedle Street right in the heart
of the City and opposite the Bank of England.

At one point they stopped and peered into the window of the
nearby Royal Bank of Scotland before walking off and disappearing
into the toilets of Mansion House tube station.

There they donned boiler suits and hard hats before heading
off back towards the bank where the police sprung their trap.

Mark Jones, of Devon Square, Newton Abbot, Devon, was a man
of previous good character who had served five years with the
Parachute Regiment, the court was told.

His younger brother had also never been involved in any
serious crime before.

Both denied, but were found guilty of, conspiracy to rob.

They claimed they had been delivering the bag to a third
party, but had nothing to do with any robbery plot.

ENDS