Is this Wolverhampton's dumbest criminal? Rubbish robber nearly knocks out accomplice, leaves his blood at crime scene and stalls getaway car
A bungling burglar is caught trying - and failing - to raid a cigarette kiosk on a night that saw him nearly knock out an accomplice with a metal bar, stall his getaway car and helpfully leave his blood at a crime scene.
Patrick Rafferty's half-hearted spree began when he and another man tried to hold up on off licence on Bilston High Street, swinging metal bars around wildly and nearly hitting each other.
They failed to open the cash drawer, eventually making off with just £20 and a battered old laptop, dropping a weapon at the scene and then stalling their VW Golf estate yards from the shop.
They then smashed their way in through a window at Co-Op on Cannock Road Bushbury, where Rafferty was caught trying frantically to smash open a cigarette kiosk before settling for two bottles of Jack Daniels.
Rafferty, 27, then cut his hand on a shard of glass on a broken window, leaving vital DNA for police.
He was arrested at home in Coronation Road, Heath Town, three days later, when police found weapons, a balaclava and part of a neighbour's lock that he had broken in a failed burglary.
Rafferty, who has 17 previous offences for acquisitive crime, admitted robbery and burglary and at Wolverhampton Crown Court and was jailed for six years.
The spree, which police called an 'epic fail', began on 10.45pm on March 3.
Dc Simon Williams said: "It was a pretty tragic series of theft attempts which netted them just a few pounds, a very dated laptop, and two bottles of bourbon. And for that Rafferty has now been jailed for six years.
"Rafferty is well known to police in the Black Country and has a string of offences to his name. They say practice makes perfect but that doesn't seem to hold true in Rafferty's case
"He's clearly not learning his lesson and is destined to spend much of his life behind bars where he can't cause any harm."
