A man has been jailed for over nine years after a couple were terrorised in their home by a gang of machete-wielding burglars.
Ashley Robinson, 22, was one of five masked men who broke into the victims’ bungalow in Whitley, near Selby, while they were asleep, York Crown Court heard.
The victims, a Chinese couple who were named in court, were awoken by the sound of loud “quarrelling” from inside the bungalow, said prosecutor Jade Bucklow.
The male victim got out of bed and “opened the bedroom door to find himself confronted by a male wearing face coverings and his hood pulled up, holding a machete,” she added.
Robinson wasn’t the man wielding the large knife during the raid, which occurred in broad daylight at about 11.40am after the gang had broken in by using a brick to smash through the kitchen door.
The couple tried in vain to hold the bedroom door shut, but the machete-wielding raider pushed it with such force that it broke off its hinges.
Both then fled through the rear door of the bedroom.
The male victim “grabbed a shovel to try to protect himself. He could see his girlfriend and an unknown male, thought to be a local resident, at the front gate who had already rung police.”
He “patrolled around” the property and saw two men, one of them carrying his partner’s Louis Vuitton handbag, emerging from the back door before running to the getaway car.
The courageous couple decided to stay put and try to stop the gang fleeing the property on Doncaster Road.
But the armed intruders ran out of the bungalow with bags of stolen items including a diamond-encrusted gold ring worth over £10,000, the key to the couple’s BMW X6, two designer coats worth about £2,000, and a Louis Vuitton handbag or wallet worth around £1,000 which contained credit cards and over £300 cash.
Acute anxiety
The raiders ran to the grey Saab getaway car parked on the other side of the road whose driver was now blaring his horn to warn them that people were gathering at the entrance to the property.
CCTV showed Robinson, wearing a hooded top and a black face mask, running out of the property wearing one of the stolen items, a Moncler designer jacket.
The male victim ran over to the Saab and tried to strike the windscreen with the shovel but only managed to hit the bonnet because the car was “already in motion”.
The getaway driver then hit the accelerator and tried to run the man and his partner over, but they managed to “dodge away” just in time.
Passers-by tried to take photos of the registration number, but it had been smeared in mud to avoid detection and it was on a false plate.
A woman who was driving along Doncaster Road saw the getaway vehicle “screech past her at speed” and she had to swerve off the road to avoid an accident. In an act of immense bravery, she followed the vehicle down the A19, all the way to Kirk Sandall on the outskirts of Doncaster, where the getaway car suddenly turned into a housing estate.
As the woman pulled into a layby, she saw two men – Robinson and his 22-year-old cohort Robert Davies – running from the vehicle. She followed them into a Costcutter shop where she took a photo of them. They were also captured on the shop’s CCTV.
Davies, of Lakeside View, Askern, near Doncaster, was identified from these images as he was already known to police as being part of an organised crime group.
Two weeks later, he was arrested at his home where police found some of the stolen items and £310 stolen cash. He was later charged with aggravated burglary, admitted the offence and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in August 2022.
One of the items found in his home, the Moncler designer coat, had Robinson’s DNA on it and he was also identified on the CCTV footage.
Robinson, from Leeds, was arrested and interviewed in September 2022 but initially denied aggravated burglary. He was due to appear for trial in January this year but failed to turn up. He was re-arrested and ultimately admitted the offence in February.
In the meantime, while out on bail, he committed another burglary in Leeds in which he stole more than £45,000 of items including an Audi A6 and £500 of Christmas presents.
He admitted those offences and appeared for sentence for all matters today (Friday, March 8).
In a statement read out in court, the victims of the Selby burglary said they had suffered acute anxiety since their horrific ordeal and struggled to sleep. They were now “scared to stay home alone”. The female victim said she was even “unable to shower alone” and they no longer dared to sleep on the ground floor.
Ms Bucklow said that while out on bail, and awaiting trial for the burglary in Selby, Robinson broke into the home in Leeds in November last year where he stole a safe from a couple’s bedroom after ransacking the property, leaving a trail of destruction.
He had stolen all manner of items including £500 of Christmas presents, an iPad worth £800 and a £44,000 Audi A6 which was parked outside.
The court heard he had previous convictions for 12 offences dating back to his youth including burglaries, vehicle theft and assaulting an emergency worker.
Defence barrister Harry Crowson said that father-to-be Robinson was an “intelligent young man” from a “very good” family but had got in with the wrong crowd as a youth which caused him to “splinter off from his family”.
Judge Deborah Sherwin said the burglary in Selby was a “violent and no doubt terrifying event”.
“A violent incident like this leaves deep scars,” she added.
Robinson, of Blackpool View, Farnley, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years for all three offences.