Robbery gang who frightened Telford phone shop staff locked up

Getaway driver Maxim Voicu, 22, and David Stefan, 20, were part of a gang of five who struck at the store at Forge Retail Park on November 10, 2018.

None of the gang members lived in the area and travelled from Birmingham in an Audi A3 with the intention of robbing the store.

Manager Christopher Watkins was present at the Colliers Way store along with staff member Cerys Lowe and several customers when the gang struck. Within 50 seconds of arriving they snatched a mobile phone worth £239, two tablet devices and 11 phone cases.

Voicu stayed in the vehicle which was deliberately parked out of view of CCTV cameras while three teenagers and Stefan entered the shop, shouting, at 10.17am.

During the incident one of the youths, aged 16, shouted “You move, I stab you,” – leaving the staff and customers fearing for their safety. It later emerged that they did not actually have a knife.

The gang, of Romanian descent, were arrested 30 minutes later after police tracked the car to Penkridge where it stopped.

Four of them were sentenced at Shrewsbury on Tuesday, after the court heard that one of the youths had gone to Romania and had not returned.

Detention

Judge Peter Barrie told them: “It was clearly a key part of the plan that one of you would have the role of frightening members of staff and the public to prevent them from raising the alarm by shouting out and making threats to stab them.”

Representing Stefan, Mr Earl Pinnock, said: “This planned robbery was very short-lived. It had little of the features that one would normally see in a professional robbery.”.

Judge Barrie sentenced Stefan, of Pretoria Road, Bordesley Green, to three years detention at a young offenders institution. He jailed Voicu, of St Margaret’s Road, Ward End, for three years. A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to three years youth detention and a 16-year-old boy to 12 months youth detention.

They must serve half minus any time already spent on remand in relation to the adults before being released on licence. The youths cannot be identified for legal reasons.

They must all pay the victims' surcharge.

Stefan and Voicu and one of the youths admitted robbery, but the two other youths denied the charge and were found guilty following a trial in September.