Have-a-go heroes praised for foiling robber's bid to escape Gornal Spar raid
A masked armed robber, who tried to hijack the car of a terrified woman after being abandoned by his getaway driver, was starting a five year jail sentence today.
Baseball bat-wielding Stephen Ball burst into the Spar store in Abbey Road, Gornal Wood with an accomplice clutching a machete and warned the female assistant: 'If you don't do what I tell you I will hurt you,' a judge was told.
She and a colleague were bundled into the back office by the other robber who ordered them to open the safe while the defendant leapt over the counter to fill a bin bag with goods and cash, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The accomplice piled money from the safe into a bin which he left in the shop after being 'spooked' when passers by gathered outside in a bid to foil the October 23 raid.
He fled to the gang's getaway car which sped off while Ball was still loading a haul of 115 packets of cigarettes, 27 pouches of tobacco and almost £150 cash, explained Mr Howard Searle, prosecuting.
Several members of the public preventing his exit were showered with glass as the 31-year-old father of four smashed his way through the blocked front door to discover he had no transport.
Desperate Ball - on licence after being released early from a jail term imposed for a similar robbery - saw a woman parking nearby and tried to force his way into her car.
He smashed the driver's window but failed to grab the key from the ignition of the vehicle - which still had the engine running - before she drove to safety. The marooned robber was grabbed by three men who he held him until police arrived to arrest him and recover the stolen property.
The defendant, a drug addict with 32 previous convictions for 74 offences, needed money to buy Christmas presents for his children, said his lawyer Mr Philip Brunt who concluded: "He knows it was a dreadful thing to do."
Ball from Turner Street, Tipton, admitted robbery, criminal damage, assault, affray and possession of an offensive weapon and was jailed by Judge James Burbidge QC who told him: "You were prevented from escaping by the sterling efforts of local people."
He ordered that the trio who detained the robber should each receive £100 from the public purse. The other gang members are still at large.
Detective Constable Cal Sanders, from West Midlands Police's CID, confirmed: "Without the public’s help, I very much doubt that he would have been caught."
