Four years for impromptu stick-up

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7347229.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A man who decided on the spur of the moment to attempt to rob a security van guard has been jailed for four years.

Belfast Crown Court heard Ernest James Swaffield, 45, from Seahaven Drive in Portavogie, was caught as he had used his wife's car as his getaway vehicle.

Swaffield demanded the guard hand over a cash box and put his hand in his pocket to suggest he had a gun.

The guard ran into the bank while a surveillance officer who had been in the nearby van chased Swaffield.

The attempted robbery happened in September 2006 outside the Ulster Bank on the Lisburn Road in Belfast.

A defence lawyer said Swaffield had dropped his wife off to go shopping and was waiting to get her when he tried to rob the guard 'in this moment of madness'

A prosecution lawyer said Swaffield claimed to the guard that he had been trying to prevent two other men from robbing the box, believed to contain about £25,000 in cash.

He said the guard had noted the registration number of Swaffield's car, and he was arrested by police who established it was registered in his wife's name.

Swaffield denied any involvement during police questioning but later pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and driving while disqualified.

A defence lawyer said Swaffield had dropped his wife off to go shopping and was waiting to get her when he tried to rob the guard "in this moment of madness".

He said that although the botched robbery could potentially have yielded a large sum of money, the offence itself was at the lowest end of cash-in-transit offences.

Jailing him for four years with two additional years of probation, the judge said that as the potential rewards in such robberies are high, "the downside has to be high as well if you are caught".

The judge said he accepted Swaffield's offence was opportunistic but "this happens all too often (and) but those who attempt to indulge in this take the risk of serious sanctions".