A gang of four teenage thugs have been jailed over a campaign of robbery and violence for “sheer enjoyment” while high on drink and drugs.
The youths punched and kicked their victims as they robbed them of mobile phones and cash in four attacks in just one night in the Eastmoor area of Wakefield.
Leeds Crown Court heard they carried on the attacks even after their terrified victims had handed over the belongings.
Samuel Auty, 18, of Batley Road, Alverthorpe, was sent to a young offenders’ institution (YOI) for three-and-a-half years yesterday after pleading guilty to two offences of robbery. Auty, who has previous convictions for violence, also asked the court to take 11 similar offences into consideration.
Alexander Martin, 18, of Green Lane, Overton, Wakefield, was sent to a YOI for two years after pleading guilty to three offences of robbery and one of attempted robbery.
Two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named, were handed sentences of two years and two years, four months, after they admitted three offences of robbery and one of attempted robbery.
The offences took place in the early hours of one day in February this year.
The first victim, who suffers from a disability, was approached by the gang and punched to the ground before being kicked repeatedly. The attack continued even when the man had handed over his cash and mobile phone.
The court heard the victim needed hospital treatment and was now too afraid to go out of his home alone at night. Another man was attacked in a similar way a short time later.
Auty then left the group but the remaining three carried out two more attacks.
Jailing them, Recorder Robin Mairs said: “When you rob people in circumstances like this you don’t just take their money and mobile phones. You rob them of their sense of security. You rob them of their sense of safety.”
He added: “The inescapable conclusion is that the violence was for sheer enjoyment.”