Pub visitor tied up and robbed by ‘friends’

A MAN was attacked, robbed and left tied to a chair in his music studio by three men who befriended him at a pub.

The victim was an agoraphobic and did not like to go out but after a few drinks was relaxed enough to visit his local in Scarborough, Martin Haigh prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

He met his subsequent attackers while some were outside smoking and after midnight they went with him to his studio. He remembered trying to teach one, Simon Cahill, how to play a keyboard, when the atmosphere suddenly changed and Cahill punched him.

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Jamie Griffiths then hit him over the head with a chair, and he was threatened with a knife before his hands were secured and he was tied up. Cahill went through his pockets stealing his cash and mobile phone before they left, two of them taking his Nissan car which was later found burnt out in the town.

Mr Haigh said at the time the third robber Dennis Hopson, was on bail for a burglary at an 85-year-old man’s home. The pensioner had slept through the intrusion but was woken by neighbours who saw four men running away afterwards, three of whom were caught.

Cahill, 38, of Cross Street, Scarborough, was jailed for three years eight months after he admitted robbery, aggravated vehicle taking and was committed for sentence after being convicted of 10 charges of damaging cars last Christmas Day.

Griffiths, 23, of Cross Street, Scarborough, was jailed for three years one month after admitting robbery and aggravated vehicle taking. Hopson, 18, of North Marine Road, was given 18 months in a young offender institution for the robbery and burglary. Daniel Grimes, 22, of New Queen Street, Scarborough, was jailed for three and a half years admitting burglary and grievous bodily harm with intent to another man and Michael Jowett-Hall, 42, of Castle Road, Scarborough, received three and a half years in jail for the burglary, a cheque theft and fraud.