Princes Risborough man imprisoned after robbery at Swindon bookmaker (From This Is Local London)

Princes Risborough man imprisoned after robbery at Swindon bookmaker

2:43pm Monday 8th February 2010 in

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A PRINCES Risborough man who helped stage an armed robbery at a bookmaker’s has been jailed for two years.

Matthew Smith handed over more than £8,000 to his accomplice Luke Corcoran after they took part in a bogus raid at the Coral bookies in Swindon on December 6.

The 23-year-old assistant manager phoned police in the aftermath of the faked robbery.

But the next day Smith admitted he and Corcoran had staged the incident themselves.

Whilst playing the part of the victim, Smith handed over £8,310 to ‘gunman’ Corcoran after his partner-in-crime emerged from the toilets armed with a toy gun.

Swindon Crown Court heard on Friday that Smith, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing, told friends and relatives that Corcoran had leaned on him to go through with it.

Corcoran, of Stanier Street, Swindon, was arrested shortly afterwards but police only recovered £5,635 of the stolen money, leaving £2,675 outstanding. The gun was never found.

He was sent to prison for three and a half years after admitting conspiracy to steal and possessing an imitation firearm at the time of committing a specified offence.

Rob Ross, defending, said Corcoran was desperate for the scam to go ahead because he was badly in debt, but he and Smith decided to do it together.

Although an imitation gun was used he said it was never with the intention of frightening anyone, simply as part of the act for the CCTV system.

He said it was a case of two young men thinking it would be easy but not realising the police are always suspicious it may be an inside job.

Mr Ross described it as “a ludicrous escapade that at the end of the day had very little chance of succeeding”.

Jailing them, Judge Douglas Field said: “A considerable amount of planning went into this.

“You, Smith, were the assistant manager, someone with responsibility for that first and this was a very serious breach of trust which is an aggravating feature.

“The motivation was quite clearly to enrich yourselves with these easy takings.

“Corcoran, you got hold of this imitation firearm apparently fairly easily and also got rid of it so it couldn’t be recovered by the police.

“The difference between the two of you with this conspiracy to steal charge was that you, Smith, had a change of heart and told police.”