Armed robber held up three victims, days after release from jail on licence

Convicted thief and burglar Bradley Onfroy, 25, and an accomplice, robbed three young men and frogmarched two of them to bank cashpoints to get money, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Onfroy and his sidekick, who were both wearing hooded tops and balaclavas and were carrying weapons, first struck in Sheffield during the early hours of Monday, May 31, last year in Marlborough Road Broomhill, when a barman was returning home from work at 1.30am.

The victim was pushed into some bushes and a nail was held to his face, before he was frogmarched to a cashpoint in nearby Crookes under threat and forced to hand over 250 from his bank account.

Megan Rhys, prosecuting, said Onfroy struck a second time at 10.20pm near Sheffield railway station as the victim walked home along Shoreham Street.

He was punched to the ground by one attacker and his hands held by a second man as he was robbed of his wallet, mobile phone, MP3 player and passport. One attacker had a metal bar.

Ten minutes later, in East Bank Road, a BMW silver convertible pulled up and Onfroy and his partner held up a man and forced him to walk to a cashpoint and withdraw 100. One of the attackers had a wrench.

Onfroy was arrested the next day with another man, whose case is still to be heard. Stolen property and the assault weapons were recovered.

The court heard Onfroy was jailed for six years for two similar robberies with others on lone males in 2002.

While out of prison on licence in 2006 he broke into two homes and was given a further four-year sentence.

When he was released on licence from that jail term, within three days he had committed the three robberies.

Onfroy, of Erskine Court, Arbourthorne, admitted three offences of robbery and two of kidnap.

His barrister Alison Dorrell said none of the victims had been seriously injured and he was "anxious to face the music and start his prison sentence".

He had been off drugs, was changing his life around in prison and had gym instructor qualifications, she said.

Judge Roger Keen told Onfroy: "There is a high risk of you causing serious harm to the general public from your future offending."

Onfroy was jailed for eight years and was told he would be under licence for five years when he came out.