Six years for robber who used sawn-off shotgun

Shilton Flynn was one of two men who entered the Pudsey Road service station in Leeds at about 11.30pm on June 9 and it was he who slammed the shortened 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun on the top of the counter telling the assistant to keep his head down.

They stole the till and put cigarettes in a bag after ransacking cupboards.

Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday as the pair ran out, a customer who had seen what was happening, flagged down a passing police car and the officers gave chase in Greenthorpe Road,

One saw the cash till being thrown away and recovered it while a brave member of the public, Steven Addy, and a police community support officer, tackled Flynn after seeing him slow down.

The gun inside a carrier bag had been thrown into a garden from where it was also recovered.

Flynn, 20, of no fixed address at the time, admitted the robbery, possessing a prohibited weapon, an earlier theft of lead piping and a failure to attend court in May on that charge.

Miss Kaye said Flynn was already on bail at the time of the robbery having been caught in the grounds of a probation hostel in April after stealing the lead piping.

As a result of the theft water flooded through the ceilings of some rooms in the hostel causing damage and repairs costing more than 3,000.

Sentencing him Judge Robert Bartfield said he had used "an absolutely fearsome weapon" in the robbery to terrify the assistant "out of his wits and cause him to cower behind the counter".

"You pointed the gun straight at him, right at his head, he must have thought his last moments had come."

Such premises were vulnerable to attack and the courts had to do what they could to protect those who worked in them. He commended Mr Addy's actions and awarded him 1,000 from public funds.

Derek Duffy, for Flynn, said three months before the offence he had lost his job and left his parents' home after a dispute. He then lived on his savings.

But when that ran out he committed the lead theft trying to get something to sell for money. He was then talked into the robbery by a man more criminally experienced than him and "who turned his head". It was he who provided the gun.