Caretaker who hid £133,000 haul from bank robbery given suspended sentence

A COUNCIL caretaker has been given a suspended jail sentence after he hid 133,000, stolen by his son-in-law in a bank robbery, inside a bin of grit salt at the flats where he worked.

Paul Holliday was one of six defendants sentenced at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after admitting possessing criminal property following the raid at the Hunslet branch of the Nat West bank on March 9, the biggest bank robbery in West Yorkshire in the past 10 years.

All were of previous good character, drawn into the offence through a link to one or other of the robbers.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said Darren Ashcroft and accomplice William Wormald got away with 371,000 after breaking in through the roof using inside information from Wormald’s girlfriend Rachael Shariar-Namini, who had previously worked in the branch.

Ashcroft initially stored the bulk of his share in the garage at his home but then told his wife Kelly to take the holdall containing the money to her parents’ home.

Holliday provided her with bin-bags for the money which was stored under the salt grit at the flats in Rycroft Place, Rycroft, Avenue, Leeds. He received 5,000 for his pains.

But police inquiries led back to the robbers and those holding money for them, leading to the recovery of more than 331,000.

Last week Ashcroft and Wormald each received eight years in jail, Shariar-Namini 12 years and David Cowie, who provided the car, five years.

Sentencing the six defendants yesterday Judge Sally Cahill QC said she accepted they had helped only after the robbery was committed.

She had remanded all but the oldest in custody overnight on Monday and said she hoped that taste of prison would persuade them to keep out of trouble in the future.

Holliday, 54, his daughter Kelly Ashcroft, 31, of Penwell Dean, Swarcliffe, Leeds, and Maziar Pourkahvaz, 32 of Waverley Garth, Leeds, were each given 12 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work.

Mr Sharp said Pourkahvaz knew Wormald as a fellow part-time doorman, and looked after more than 150,000 in a briefcase for him.

Kealey Reynard, 29, then of Stanks Drive, Swarcliffe, Leeds was given a nine-month sentence suspended for two years with 150 hours’ unpaid work and her husband Jonathan Reynard, 30, was given a six-month sentence suspended for 12 months with a three month electronic curfew from 9pm to 8am. They received 12,000 for driving Ashcroft to his parents’ home in Scarborough.

Charles Cowie, 68, of Hansby Avenue, Seacroft, Leeds was given a conditional discharge for 12 months. The court heard he stored money in his shed for his son.

Marlon Grossman, representing Holliday, told the court that he, like others, would be paying heavily for his misjudged loyalty in helping his daughter, losing his reputation, his employment and his home as well.