ROBBERS' JAIL TERMS ARE 'TOO LENIENT' (From Warrington Guardian)

ROBBERS' JAIL TERMS ARE 'TOO LENIENT'

POLICE say the courts have been too lenient on three masked armed robbers after they were each given two-year sentences.

The men, along with a fourth robber who is on the run, bound and gagged a security guard as they robbed Biffa Waste Services, off the M62, at Risley.

Warrington Crown Court heard that the guard was tied up with tape, gagged and threatened with physical violence. As a result of this abuse he has not been able to return to work.

On Friday the court heard that in December, last year, four men, wearing masks and armed with baseball bats and crowbars, robbed the waste services.

Three of the men, Jonathon Sunderland, aged 18, of Northway, Longford, along with Jonathon Penney, aged 20, of Irwell Street, Widnes, and Lloyde McGuire, aged 20, of Wrights Crescent, Widnes, pleaded guilty to robbery.

But Jonathon Parkes, aged 24, of Whitchurch Way, Runcorn, has absconded and police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

Sunderland, Penney and McGuire maintained that they played a small role in the robbery.

Maria Masselis, prosecuting, said of the security guard: "He has given up his job and finds life difficult as a result of the frightening experience of being tied up in that way."

The court heard that the gang were loading up £2,000-worth of computer equipment when they were disturbed.

Judge David Hale said: "This was a serious robbery but I'm prepared to sentence you all on the basis that Parkes was the person who thought of it, set it up, and recruited you."

But he added that the three knew what was happening and that they were all present when the guard was tied up.

Judge Hale said that if the case had gone to trial and the defendants had been found guilty they would each have got at least five years.

Penney and McGuire were sentenced to two years in a young offenders' institution while Sunderland got a two-year detention and training order.

DC Gordon Livingstone, of Warrington CID: "I have got to say that despite there supposed minor roles it's still a very lenient punishment because of what the victim has had to suffer."