A person who has carried out a sequence of robberies at bookmakers throughout London pretending his strolling stick was a shotgun has been jailed for 10 years.
Brett Mullan, 50, of Gravesend, hid a collapsible strolling stick in a plastic bag, which was used to resemble a shotgun and scare the general public and workers on the bookmakers.
The Metropolitan Police says a complete of £2,780 was stolen over the course of the robberies.
Mullan was caught after giving his actual identify to a railway ticket inspector when stopped on a prepare on his option to the second theft in Burnt Ash Road on 13 April.
He was recognized utilizing CCTV footage as officers discovered that the suspect was travelling to and from the offences by rail.
From there, police gathered footage of every offence, and of Mullan leaving from and returning to his residence deal with.
The Flying Squad investigated a linked sequence of armed robberies at bookmakers in Lee, Norwood, Sutton and Crayford between Monday 4 April and Sunday 24 April.
Mullan was arrested on 25 April as he left his residence and later pleaded responsible to 5 counts of theft and 5 counts of possession of an imitation firearm.
Detective Constable Carl Stallabras, from the Met’s Flying Squad, mentioned: “Mullan terrified members of the public and staff at the bookmakers who were going about their normal lives when he demanded cash and made threats of serious violence. Those people feared for their lives.
“But a easy mistake on his option to the second offence was all we would have liked to trace him down, and from there the wealth of proof we obtained left him no selection however to plead responsible.”
He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday.
Source: information.sky.com”