Jailed: Three from Telford locked up over unsuccessful jewellery raid
Four men – including three from Telford – who took part in a "well-crafted" but unsuccessful raid on a jewellers have been jailed.
The man behind the raid, Arfan Latif, had denied conspiring to rob staff at Daniels Jewellers in Bedworth, Warwickshire, in April last year.
But he and Joseph Harvey changed their pleas to guilty on the day they were to stand trial with Martin Delaney, who was convicted by the jury, while Raphel McLeary had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
Latif, 31, of Kinver Croft, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, who also admitted a later robbery at a post office in Coventry, was jailed for a total of six years.
Delaney, 23, of Sutton Road, Admaston, Telford, was jailed for 27 months, as was Harvey, 23, of Millfields Road, Wellington, who was also given a consecutive six-month term for breaching a suspended sentence he was subject to at the time.
McLeary, who was 25 on the day after the hearing, of Mafeking Road, Hadley, was sentenced to 25 months after being given credit for his earlier plea.
Prosecutor Amy Jackson said that at just after 2pm on April 24 last year a Volvo driven by McLeary, with Delaney in the front passenger seat and the other two in the back pulled into an entry at the side of the Daniels Jewellers.
Latif got out and entered the jewellers. As he tried to open a cabinet, staff pressed the panic alarm forcing Latif to flee empty-handed. He then ran back to the Volvo which then sped away.
Jailing the four, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told them: "Little shops like this jewellers, and the people who work in them, are entitled to look to the courts to take a serious view of people who plan to rob them."
