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Jewellery raiders in court

A disabled getaway driver led police on a high-speed chase after a raid on a jeweller’s, a court heard.
Teenager John Smith, who has no arms just below his elbows, was part of a gang which smashed its way into Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre and stole almost £175,000 of jewellery in December last year.
Smith, 18, reached speeds up to 100mph as he approached the Blackwall Tunnel in south east London in a Ford Focus.
Also in the car were the three who carried out the raid - Tyrone Tassell, 21, Sunni Sacco, 19, and 16-year-old Craig Phillips.
Maidstone Crown Court heard that Smith would not have been able to drive the manual car unassisted and that one of them would have been moving the gearstick.
Nothing was said in court as to how or when Smith suffered his disability.
He lost control of the car as he rounded a bend into the tunnel.
The four were arrested within minutes and all the jewellery - including some single items which alone were said to be worth thousands of pounds - was recovered.
Smith, Tassell, Sacco and Phillips, all from London, admitted burglary.
Recorder Charles George QC said it was a serious, planned crime.
“You went out in a gang, you specifically targetted premises with high value goods, you used considerable force to gain entry and then you took this substantial haul and sped off in your car and engaged in a wholly reckless chase.”

Maidstone Crown Court
Maidstone Crown Court

The court heard the raiders struck just before 2am on December 17.
The Focus pulled up in a service area outside a door leading into the shopping centre and three men wearing hooded tops were seen trying to smash their way in.
They used various tools, including crowbars, as they attempted to force the doors open. They eventually broke a glass panel and climbed through.
Once in the shopping centre they used a claw hammer to smash a window at Ernest Jones. The trio, whose faces were concealed by clothing, then stole £174, 445 worth of jewellery before returning to the waiting car. Several tools, including a mallet and claw hammer, were found among the debris of the damaged shop.

Smith, of Staveley Close, Holloway, was given 12 months youth custody suspended for two years. He will be supervised for 12 months, must attend the Think First programme and be subject to a six-month electronically-tagged curfew.
Tassell, of Eastleigh Road, Walthamstow,, was jailed for 32 months less 224 days already served either on remand or under tagged curfew. However, it is consecutive to six months imposed for breach of a suspended sentence for an unrelated burglary.
Sacco, of Jaffe Road, Ilford, was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution less 241 days served on remand or under tagged curfew.
Phillips, of Rotherfield Street, Islington,got a two-year supervision order with 90 days specified activity and a six-month tagged curfew.

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