Jailed for pub raid
Date published: 28 February 2011
TWO men who carried out a terrifying armed raid on a pub in Mossley have been jailed.
David Callow, (41) and Stewart Bowden, (30), rounded up staff at the Hartshead Inn pub and restaurant brandishing a sawn-off shotgun.
The pair then forced one of the staff members to open a safe before emptying the contents.
The dramatic robbery happened on Sunday, May 9, last year, and police managed to track them down after stopping a stolen car less than an hour later.
Bowden was found in the car wearing body armour and in possession of live ammunition.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the robbers had familiarised themselves with the Mossley Road pub with their girlfriends.
Judge Tim Mort said: “It was a professionally planned, commercial robbery with a sawn-off shotgun — with the possibility that it would be used. This was terrifying for the people who worked there.”
Bowden, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 12 years for robbery and seven for possession of a firearm, to run concurrently. Callow, of Prestwich, was jailed for nine and a half years for robbery and six and a half for possession.
