Middle-aged addicts jailed for spate of knife-point robberies over a single day
A pair of knife-wielding middle-aged robbers have been handed lengthy jail terms after five shops were targeted in less than day.
Drug-addicted duo, Jonathan Robshaw and Lee Bland, hit mainly convenience stores in the Castleford area in a 21-hour period.
With Bland as a lookout for three of the offences, Robshaw entered each wearing a blue Covid mask and pulled out a large kitchen knife before demanding staff open the tills.
Prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court, Helen Chapman said at around 10.25pm on April 19, Robshaw entered the Tesco Express on Churchbalk Lane and demanded cash.
When the assistant refused, Robshaw threatened to come round to the till. He was eventually given £50 and six packets of cigarettes.
At 7.10am the next day, he walked into Sainsbury’s on Smawthorne Lane, again he was refused by staff and tried to prise open a till with his knife.
Eventually a till was opened for him and he grabbed £200 in notes.
He then targeted Coral bookmakers on Carlton Street at 6.25pm that night, with Bland joining him and holding open the door. They fled emptyhanded.
Minutes later the pair went to B&M on Albion Street with Bland acting as lookout while Robshaw brandished the knife to staff.
He was eventually attacked by a customer with a brush and fled.
Finally, Robshaw entered the Premier store on Lumley Street at 7.45pm and threatened the worker with a knife, who handed over the contents of the till.
Both were arrested days later and gave no comments to police.
Robshaw, aged 44, of Camelot Court, Pontefract, admitted three robberies and two attempted robberies.
Bland, aged 46, of Denby Crest, Darrington, admitted one robbery and two attempted robberies.
Mitigating for Bland, Richard Canning said: “He frankly says this will be his last period of custody. He has had enough.
"He knows he has to change his life.”
He said that as a heroin addict, Bland had been reducing his methadone prescription in jail to get clean.
For Robshaw, Gareth Henderson-Moore said his client also has a drug addiction.
He said: "He was diagnosed in 2020 with a brain tumour and that has caused him to return to the evil clutches of drugs.”
The judge, Recorder Mark McKone KC handed Bland 45 months’ jail, and Robshaw 72 months’.