Gang raid terror man gets six years

A 21-year-old who was part of an armed gang which held a robbery victim prisoner in his Failsworth home has been jailed for six years.

The hooded raiders broke into the property in Oldham Road brandishing a hammer and an axe as their victim Mathew Short was relaxing late at night.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told the gang wrongly believed he was growing cannabis.

In fact he wasn’t, and after terrorising him with threats of violence, they escaped with electrical equipment worth £1,200.

Only one of the gang was later caught. Lee Holland’s fingerprints were found close to a window through which they got in on July 22, 2009.

Benjamin Lawrence prosecuting, said Holland denied his involvement, but was eventually convicted of a charge of aggravated burglary by a majority jury verdict after a trial.

The court was told that Mr Short, though not physically harmed, had been traumatised by his ordeal.

He was said to have been so badly affected by the experience that he had not wanted to continue living at the address.

He had hoped to go to university, but felt unable to pursue his ambition, and had been feeling more distressed as time went by.

Katherine Pierrepoint defending, said that Holland had been only 19 at the time of the robbery.

She said: “There is no doubt that this was an extremely serious incident in which serious psychological harm was caused.”

But she said it was not considered that Holland should be classed as a man who posed a serious danger to the public in the future.

“He had perhaps involved himself with others more criminally sophisticated, and he is now having to pay the price,” she said.

The court was told that Holland, from Oldham, had now moved away from the town and people with whom he had been mixing, and had been living with the parents of his new partner.

She is heavily pregnant and expecting his child at the end of this month.

Ms Pierrepoint said chef Holland, who gave his address as Fairlands Road, Sale, had managed to stay out of trouble since the robbery and was determined to make a new life with his partner.

Passing sentence, Recorder Mr Craig Sephton told him: “This is the third burglary you have committed, and it represents a serious escalation in the seriousness of our offending.”