A man who robbed a bank in Harrogate has been jailed for nearly four years – less than a month after the robbery took place.
On 6 April 2020, a man wearing a black beanie hat and a black scarf round his mouth passed a note to staff reading ‘shoot to kill’ and ‘put £5000 in the bag’ at the Co-operative Bank in Prospect Crescent, Harrogate. The man kept one hand behind his back, inside the back of his trousers, suggesting he had a gun. He made off with thousands of pounds in cash.
An investigation began immediately, and CCTV enquiries quickly identified a suspect. The very next day, 60-year-old Terence Stott was arrested in connection with the offence. He was charged with robbery.
Stott appeared at York Crown Court on 30 April 2020, where he pleaded guilty to the offence. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison for the robbery, and a further two months to run consecutively for breaching a suspended sentence – a total of 46 months.
The officer leading the investigation, DC Nicky Wareham of Harrogate CID, said: “I would like to praise the staff at the bank for their handling of what I’m sure was a terrifying incident. Immediate actions taken by the police officers who attended the incident on the day led to Stott quickly being identified as the offender.
“The public should be reassured that this type of offence is extremely rare in the Harrogate area, and we continue to live in one of the safest parts of the country.”
As this man was a fixture and fitting Sat outside Marks and Spencer’s on a daily basis breaking the law by openly begging and with a string of criminal convictions let’s hope part of his very light sentence is that he is not allowed to return to Harrogate to carry out further illegal activities but I am sure in about two years when he is released he will be back in his usual place and no shop , bank or bookma ker will be safe, questions the police commissioner will avoid as usual
He used to beg for his dogs sake get a grip he probably did what he did to get somewhere warm to stay
The dog wasn’t even his, he wasn’t homeless , just another idiot who broke the law time and again, the only one who needs to get a grip is you, know doubt you will be some do gooding moron who believes he did what he had to do, attitudes like that make me sick, no wonder you didn’t put your name on here you clown
I willl miss his out of tune renditions of “Madchester” music whilst walking to work. I will miss him sitting outside Mark’s and Spencer, with his token begging hound, I will miss seeing him thanking elderly ladies for putting money into his coffee cup. The sentence given is not adequate for his crime, regardless of what the law says. He has no business ever coming back to Harrogate, he had received multiple barring notices from shops in the area.
He was homeless and he did it to go to jail, a roof over his head, 3meals a day… institutionalised