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Camden New Journal - by DAVID ST GEORGE
Published: 22 November 2007

Father and son jailed for robbery

THERE was something odd about the breathless customer having a cuppa in a Finchley Road café.
Mark Roberts was dripping sweat as he read a newspaper – but it was upside down.
Moments later armed police burst in and arrested the 23-year-old. They took a loaded pistol from his jacket pocket. Asked why he was perspiring, he replied: “Tea’s too hot.”
The Old Bailey heard on Friday that Roberts fled after he and his father Andrew, 43, bungled a hold-up outside the Allied Irish Bank, near Swiss Cottage.
“They worked together as a team and both wore hoods. They were caught red-handed,” said John Coffey, QC, prosecuting.
A security guard was threatened and £25,000 snatched from him on October 27 last year.
The money was recovered when father and son drove into a cul-de-sac. They were trapped by police who were in the area on a training exercise. Mark Roberts fired a shot towards officers who chased him.
His asthmatic father tried to flee but soon stopped. He then lashed out at a woman officer, causing a face wound that needed stitches.
Mark, of Islington, and Andrew, of Tulse Hill, south London, were convicted of robbery and firearms offences. The father was also convicted of assault.
Judge Martin Stephens, QC, sentenced Mark Roberts to a minimum seven-and-a-half years “for public protection” and his father to a nine-year minimum term.
The judge praised the courage of PC Hardev Dale, 28, who was shot at during the police chase. Other officers were also commended.

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