Two organised crime gang members who carried out a six-month spree of terrifying raids at supermarkets across Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have been jailed for more than 11 years.
Shaun Martin and Daniel Bage targeted eight Co-op and Tesco stores in the county in the “meticulously planned” raids, between April and September last year, as well as three Co-op stores in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Norwich Crown Court heard how the pair brandished weapons and threatened shop staff during the robberies.
The pair were caught after a lengthy police investigation spanning three counties, and had gone to “great lengths” to avoid capture, officers said.
Martin, aged 35, of Darwin Walk, Duston, was jailed for four-and-a-half years and Bage, aged 29, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to seven years. They had both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robberies.
The eight offences in Northamptonshire were as follows:
Co-op, Pond Farm Close, Duston - Thursday, April 24
Co-op, Wootton Hope Drive, Wootton Fields, Northampton - Thursday, May 15
Co-op, Richmond Road, Towcester - Friday, June 1
Tesco, Kent Road, Duston - Thursday, June 12
Tesco Express, Wimborne Place, Daventry - Friday, June 22
Co-op, Lake Avenue, Kettering - Friday, June 29
Co-op, Hunters Way, Brixworth - Tuesday, July 17
Co-op, St Leonard’s Road, Far Cotton, Northampton - Friday, August 17
The pair also raided Co-op stores in Sheringham, Norfolk, on Wednesday, August 8; Clenchwarton, Norfolk on Wednesday, August 22 and Laxfield, Suffolk on Wednesday, September 5.
Detective Inspector David Giles, from Suffolk Police said: “This is the culmination of a lengthy police investigation over nine months across three counties and I am pleased with the sentences handed down by the judge at court.
“The robberies had been meticulously planned and executed at stores, often in remote locations. Bage and Martin formed part of an organised crime group who had clearly researched their crimes and went to great lengths to carry out the robberies and secure their escape.
“For shop staff to be confronted by people threatening them while brandishing weapons must have been terrifying for them. The fact they are now behind bars will hopefully be of some comfort to them.
“The investigation that has concluded today has come about through excellent cross-border working between forces, the tenacity of a Suffolk officer who followed a suspect’s vehicle which failed to stop, and good old-fashioned policing.
“Today should serve as a warning to those people who are thinking of committing such crimes that wherever you choose to hide, we will never stop looking for you.”
At the same court last month, Anna Spina, aged 41, of Newport Pagnell Road, Northampton, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 200 hours community service, after pleading guilty to assisting an offender in connection with the Laxfield robbery.