Axe-wielding smash and grab raider who struck at Whitby jewellers is jailed

Career criminal Neil Robinson, 43, used the axe to smash the shop window at CW Sellors jewellers in Sandgate, then reached in and grabbed thousands of pounds’ worth of necklaces which have never been recovered, York Crown Court heard.

Neighbours living next to the jewellery shop heard a smashing sound as Robinson and his sidekick Kevin O’Connell - who have 77 previous convictions between them for a combined 216 offences – fled the scene in a Ford Fiesta.

Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said the two men had travelled from their homes in Stockton-on-Tees in the early hours of July 31 last year to target the jewellers.

A neighbour spotted them outside the shop at about 4.20am, where Robinson smashed the shop front with an axe.

“The neighbour shouted at them (and) O’Connell ran away to the (Fiesta),” said Ms Morrison.

“Neil Robinson continued to smash the glass and reached inside the property before joining O’Connell in the (vehicle) and driving off.”

Neighbours gave police a description of the vehicle which was stopped about an hour later as the burglars dove back to Teesside.

They were arrested and their clothes seized, which showed traces of glass fragments from the smashed shop window.

The axe was found dumped near the jeweller’s the following day.

The named shop owner told police the burglars had stolen several necklaces worth £4,997.

Robinson - already serving a 14-month jail sentence which was handed down at Teesside Crown Court in March for dangerous driving and handling stolen goods – and O’Connell, of Durham Street, Stockton-on-Tees, were charged with burglary.

They appeared for sentence on Tuesday, September 27 after they each admitted the offence.

Robinson, appearing via video link, told the court he had dropped two of the necklaces as he ran from the shop but admitted he had sold two others.

The court heard that Robinson had 47 previous convictions for 131 offences dating back to his teens.

They included 37 previous burglary convictions, 73 for theft and kindred offences and 11 for handling stolen goods.

He had been in and out of prison for years, mainly for burglary, and in December 2019 received a three-year jail sentence for dealing Class A drugs.

He was still on prison licence for those offences when he raided the jewellery shop in Whitby.

O’Connell, 47, had 30 previous convictions for 85 offences including nine for burglary and 36 for theft and kindred offences.

Defence barrister Kelly Sherif, for Robinson, said the father-of-one had been addicted to drugs in the past but was now clean.

Michael Cahill, for O’Connell, said his client, who is also a father, had health problems and had taken “significant steps to move himself away from addictive behaviours”.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said the “smash-and-grab” raid had caused an “enormous amount of (inconvenience)” for “people running a small business”.

He told the defendants: “Both of you have a history of previous convictions (and) both of you started committing burglaries in your teenage years and been in the court system through your 20s and 30s.”

He told Robinson: “You have been committing burglaries on a regular basis for far too many years now.”

However, the judge said he must consider “totality” in sentencing Robinson, given that he was already serving a 14-month jail sentence for previous offences.

Robinson was jailed for 10 months for the jewellery raid, but the judge said this would be consecutive to his existing prison term, which effectively meant he was now serving a two-year sentence.

Mr Ashurst said that having read probation and medical reports on O’Connell, he could spare him jail even though a “prison sentence is right in principle”.

He said that mitigating circumstances, including O’Connell’s medical condition, meant there were grounds to suspend his sentence.

O’Connell was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with a 20-day rehabilitation programme and a six-month night-time curfew.

The judge said it was impossible to make a compensation order given the defendants’ “personal circumstances” but made a confiscation order depriving O’Connell of his Ford Fiesta.