Pair leave empty-handed after bid to raid store (From Swindon Advertiser)

Pair leave empty-handed after bid to raid store

8:00am Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

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POLICE are hunting two men who used a gun to try to hold up a newsagents in Pinehurst yesterday morning.

It follows three other armed robberies and a shooting incident in Swindon within the space of just over three weeks.

Two men with scarves over their faces burst into One Stop Shop in The Circle carrying an imitation firearm at about 11.20am.

But a Royal Mail worker confronted them and the pair quickly made their getaway empty-handed, a Wiltshire Police spokesman said.

An imitation gun was found at the scene and CCTV is being viewed of the area. No arrests have so far been made.

Last night Detective Sergeant Tom Straker, of Swindon Police, said: “They were tackled by a Royal Mail worker and subsequently left with nothing.

“The first man was dressed all in black. The second was wearing light blue jeans and a grey hooded top with a motif on the back.

“We are appealing for information in relation to this incident and urge people to come forward and speak to us.”

Other recent gun incidents in Swindon include four people who were charged with conspiracy to commit murder of a 24-year-old man in Spruce Court, Pinehurst, on Saturday, January 17.

Six days later police investigated an armed robbery in which a couple were held at gunpoint in Stonehenge Road, Wichelstowe.

Beri Franso, 22, of County Road was later charged with aggravated burglary and possession of an imitation firearm.

Then occupants of a house in Hythe Road, Old Town, were having a party when five men burst in carrying what was believed to be kitchen knives at about 2.15am on Monday, February 1.

The offenders then left the house with the victim’s mobile phones, cash and keys to a black BMW. The vehicle was later located abandoned in Farrier’s Close.

In another incident an assistant manager at the Coral bookmaker’s shop in Market Street was jailed for two years after he and a friend set up a fake armed robbery on December 6 last year.

Coral employee Matthew Smith, 23, told police he had been held up at gunpoint after Luke Corcoran, 20, had pretended to carry out the raid of £8,310.

Police only recovered £5,635 of the stolen money leaving £2,675 outstanding. The gun was also never found.

Corcoran, of Stainer Street, was sentenced to three-and-a-half-years in jail.

Any information about the latest incident in Pinehurst can be passed onto Det Sgt Straker by calling 0845 408 7000 or Crimestoppers, where information can be left anonymously, on 0800 555 111.