Security guard hurt in Walsgrave Tesco store raid

A security guard was injured when robbers attacked a cash van outside a busy Coventry supermarket yesterday.



The Securicor worker was making a delivery to the Tesco store in Walsgrave Triangle when the robbers struck just before 3.30pm.

Coventry Police said the guard was assaulted with an unknown weapon and a cash-box containing an undisclosed sum of cash was stolen.

It is not known how many offenders there were or how they got away.

Paramedics said they treated the victim at the scene and he did not need to go to hospital.

The store, at Olivier Way, on the Cross Point Industrial Estate, was packed with mid-afternoon shoppers, but most did not know anything happened until the police arrived.

At least three police cars and a police dog unit were scrambled to the scene. The dogs were used to scour the car park and surrounding area while officers began to question shoppers about what they had seen.

One woman, who asked not to be identified, said: “I heard someone got bashed.

“The police were here in a flash – that’s the way it should be.”

And a man said: “I heard they got away with a cash bag.”

A dad who had been shopping with his two small sons when the incident took place said: “It’s quite a shock that something like this can happen in broad daylight when it’s so busy.

“We saw the security guard sitting down just by his van before the ambulance arrived – it looked like he had been hit over the head.”

A spokesman for the West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We were called just after 3.30pm and one ambulance attended the scene.

“A man was treated for his injuries on the scene. He wasn’t taken to hospital.”

Police are appealing for any witnesses, particularly anyone who may have seen the offenders make their getaway, to come forward.

Career criminal jailed for role in Coventry supermarket robbery

A MAN has been jailed for more than two years for helping with a robbery at a Coventry supermarket.

Peter Windle, aged 23, who has been in and out of custody since he was aged 11, was already serving a five year prison sentence for two robberies last year.

Yesterday he appeared at Coventry Crown Court to be sentenced for assisting robbers who ambushed security guards delivering money to a cashpoint at Tesco Extra in Walsgrave.

Windle, formerly of James Galloway Close, Ernesford Grange admitted one count of handling stolen goods and one count of conspiracy to rob.

Prosecuting, Aliya Rashid said Windle helped out by changing the registration plates of the getaway car.

He had also bought a sledge hammer from a Foleshill shop on the morning of the robbery.

Mrs Rashid said: “The defendant admitted he had been asked to purchase the sledge hammer to break open a secure box and that was his only involvement.

“He was not present at the robbery and didn’t receive any financial remuneration from it.”

The robbery was carried out on May 9 last year by two men who struck a security guard as he carried a box containing £26,000 cash from a Securicor van to an ATM machine at Tesco Extra in Walsgrave.

The security guard suffered minor injuries in the attack.

The box, which had contained purple dye, was later found empty in Longford. The car and sledge hammer, which had fingerprints in the dye, were found the next day.

The two perpetrators have never been found and only £3,000 of the money has since been recovered.

Windle was arrested in July after his fingerprints were found on the registration plates and police were led to the shop where the sledge hammer was bought after the price tag was left on it.

Defending, Justin Jarmola said: “While he might have realised what the hammer would be used for, he was not one of the two who carried out the attack.

“He distanced himself from the incident, and while his record is extensive, he wants to move on from this and is determined to move away from his criminal lifestyle.”

Recorder Tom Rochford sentenced Windle to two years and eight months for buying the sledge hammer and eight months to run concurrent for handling the stolen car.

This will run consecutive to his current prison sentence.

The Recorder said: “Your involvement may have been limited but the fact that you were involved at all is serious.’’

So they landed the small fry but the big fish got away?

It also says something about Social Services that a kid can be in and out of institutions from the age of eleven onwards!