Video: Gang jailed for £1m robberies

3:17pm Thursday 4th September 2008

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MEMBERS of a gang which carried out robberies netting £1m in cash and jewellery have been sentenced to more than 60 years in prison.

The robbers targeted jewellers and security van guards across the capital.

Twelve men have been sentenced at Kingston Crown Court this week.

Among them were Gary Bailey, of Ballard House, Deptford, and Craig Frawley, of Hardy Court, Frobisher Road, Erith, who both pleaded guilty to the robbery of a security guard in South Norwood.

The robbery took place at a petrol station after the van driver stopped to make a collection of cash.

Frawley and another man robbed him of his cash box on his way from the shop back to the van, the court heard.

They then ran out of the petrol station to a waiting vehicle being driven by Bailey.

The car sped off northbound along South Norwood Hill where it was stopped by Barnes Flying Squad.

Officers recovered the stolen cash box containing in excess of £5,000.

Bailey, aged 28, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Frawley, aged 23, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail.

Orchestrated by Dean Oxley, aged 30, of no fixed abode, four other robberies were carried out from April to July last year.

In all five robberies staff and the general public were threatened with firearms.

In one incident a woman who was five months' pregnant was threatened with a chair.

During the robberies £1,025,900 of property was stolen, and officers have so far recovered £6,000 in cash and £100,000 worth of watches.

Six other gang members pleaded guilty to robbery, while three others were found guilty of conspiracy to rob following a trial.

They were jailed for between three and 12 years.

Detective Sergeant Steve Kiely, of the Met's Flying Squad, said: "These sentences reflect how the courts and police view organised crime, recognising the varied roles held within a criminal network."

• Gang members were filmed on CCTV robbing Ernest Jones Jewellers in Chelsea - watch the video