Knifepoint robber targeted women in Leeds street and terrorised shopkeeper

Shilton Flynn, 28, was locked up for six years, four months, over the offences in Otley and Pudsey in June last year.

A court heard Flynn has a previous conviction for using a sawn-off shotgun to rob a petrol station.

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Dave Mackay, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court Flynn and another man targeted the women as they left a restaurant in Otley.

One of the victims, aged 61, got into her Range Rover to try to escape put Flynn opened the door.

He grabbed her handbag which contained cash and bank cards.

Flynn’s accomplice was carrying a knife and approached the two other women.

One of the women managed to fight him off.

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The other handed over a Fendi handbag, worth £2,000, which contained keys and cash.

The robbers drove off but struck again early the next morning at the Go Local Extra store on Kent Road, Pudsey.

Flynn was armed with a knife and the other man had a hammer when they threatened the owner.

The hammer was used to smash down a display.

Flynn took £200 from the till before they left.

Flynn was arrested after he was spotted on CCTV using the bank cards stolen in the Otley robberies to buy cigarettes from Tesco stores.

Flynn, of Millbank Court, Pudsey, pleaded guilty to three offences of robbery, two of fraud and one of possession of a blade.

Victoria Smith-Swain, mitigating, said Flynn committed the offences when he was homeless and abusing drugs after losing his job and splitting up with her partner.

The barrister said Flynn had written to the court expressing his remorse for what he had put his victims through.

Miss Smith-Swain said Flynn accepted that he must receive a lengthy prison sentence.

She added that he was wanted to turn his life around while in custody and hoped to become a better role model to his son.

Judge Christopher Batty said: “I sincerely hope that this has been the wake-up call that you say it has been.”