Fifteen-year-old boy sentenced for robbing Liverpool bank at gunpoint
22 Oct 2013:
Teenager pleads guilty to holding up branch of Barclay's bank with fake firearm and stealing more than £2,000
Teenager pleads guilty to holding up branch of Barclay's bank with fake firearm and stealing more than £2,000
The judge said the boy
targeted the Barclays bank in Breck Road, Liverpool, because he thought
it would be a 'soft touch'. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
A 15-year-old schoolboy has been sentenced to 40 months in a
young offenders' Iinstitution for robbing a bank with an imitation
firearm.
The teenager was sentenced on Tuesday at Liverpool crown court after pleading guilty to holding up a branch of Barclays bank in Breck Road, Liverpool, on 20 September and making off with more than £2,000.
The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was described as a model pupil.but was motivated by greed when he carried out the raid, Liverpool youth court heard last month.
He was turned over to the police by his mother, who was shocked to find a stash of cash, stained with dye, and a fake firearm in his bedroom.
Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the honorary recorder of Liverpool, told the boy: "However innocent you look now, as you sit in your smart suit, you did not look innocent when you held up bank staff at gunpoint and terrified them."
The judge said the teenager had planned the robbery at that particular branch because he thought it would be a "soft touch".
The court heard the boy wanted cash because he envied his friends' possessions but also to reduce the financial burden on his family, who were having to pay for private tuition for him as his school grades were falling.
The judge said that after the boy fled the scene with £2,200 in cash – some of which had been dyed when a security device was triggered – he took the money home and "carried on with his young life as if nothing had happened".
"Two days later, your mother found the money which you had hidden away, and then, later the same day, the gun," the judge told him.
"It was your mother who bravely and in a remarkable display of public spirit decided to take you to the police station, despite you pleading with her not to."
The teenager was sentenced on Tuesday at Liverpool crown court after pleading guilty to holding up a branch of Barclays bank in Breck Road, Liverpool, on 20 September and making off with more than £2,000.
The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was described as a model pupil.but was motivated by greed when he carried out the raid, Liverpool youth court heard last month.
He was turned over to the police by his mother, who was shocked to find a stash of cash, stained with dye, and a fake firearm in his bedroom.
Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the honorary recorder of Liverpool, told the boy: "However innocent you look now, as you sit in your smart suit, you did not look innocent when you held up bank staff at gunpoint and terrified them."
The judge said the teenager had planned the robbery at that particular branch because he thought it would be a "soft touch".
The court heard the boy wanted cash because he envied his friends' possessions but also to reduce the financial burden on his family, who were having to pay for private tuition for him as his school grades were falling.
The judge said that after the boy fled the scene with £2,200 in cash – some of which had been dyed when a security device was triggered – he took the money home and "carried on with his young life as if nothing had happened".
"Two days later, your mother found the money which you had hidden away, and then, later the same day, the gun," the judge told him.
"It was your mother who bravely and in a remarkable display of public spirit decided to take you to the police station, despite you pleading with her not to."
Goldstone
said the actions of the boy's mother were "all the more commendable"
when he compared it with other cases where parents were prepared to lie
to protect their children when they knew they had committed serious
crimes.
He said he accepted the boy's remorse was genuine but that
custody was necessary, not simply to punish the defendant but to show
other boys that "if they choose to commit offences of this kind, they
will be sent to detention".copy http://www.theguardian.com
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário