JAILED: £22k masked raiders' getaway driver
A getaway driver from Wolverhampton has been jailed for eight years for his part in a £22,000 post office robbery.
Matthew Stinson took masked raiders to Darlaston where they snatched a cash box from a security guard as he delivered cash to Hall Lane Post Office.
The car was driven at high speed towards guard Daniel Smith, before thieves jumped out shouting 'Give me the money, drop the box!' Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Mr Smith dropped the cash box containing £22,000, before it was grabbed by the robbers.
Mr Stuart Clarkson, prosecuting, said 30-year-old Stinson, of Griffiths Drive, Ashmore Park, was also involved in the theft of the car used in the robbery the day before.
The car was stolen on March 2 after Sarah Hilton left her Peugeot 508 running on the drive of her Cannock home while she briefly returned to the house. When she came back, the £10,000 car was gone. The following day, at 9.50am, the Peugeot was used in the post office robbery.
Stinson's distinctive Citroen DS3, which was white with a black roof, was picked up on Ms Hilton's CCTV cameras. Neighbours also spotted the car which had aroused their suspicions.
CCTV footage showed a white Citroen parked in a cul-de-sac close by at the time of the robbery. The Peugeot was found abandoned 30 minutes later in Darlaston with the empty cash box nearby.
Two days later officers found £4,850 in stained bank notes in a pouch belonging to another of the robbers in a VW Golf car close to Stinson's home. Significant amounts of cash were also found on some of his relatives although nothing like the full amount has been recovered. Stinson was involved in a similar robbery at Essington post office in 2013 when £19,000 was stolen. He was also in breach of a six-month prison sentence for handling stolen goods last year.
Mr Oliver Woodhouse, defending, said no weapons had been used in the raids and Stinson had taken part on the assurance no-one would get hurt. Stinson claimed his debt to drug dealers would be wiped out if he agreed to take part. Stinson pleaded guilty to theft and robbery. He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years, with the six-month suspended sentence to run consecutively – a total of eight years in prison.
