Armed gang who targeted Nottingham store jumped counter and terrified staff

A getaway driver said he had no idea the other gang members would threaten two shop workers with weapons during a terrifying raid - but a judge didn't believe him. Victor Rickett told Nottingham Crown Court he had no idea Dane Atkin had armed himself with a hammer before he jumped over the counter and told a petrified female staff member to open the cash register.

The 41-year-old father-of-four said he thought the men had gone into the Nuthall store to take tobacco and alcohol and that he only agreed to be their lookout as he was in debt. But his account was dismissed by Judge James Sampson who told the self-employed landscape he knew full well what he was getting involved in.

Jailing him for three years and nine months, the judge said: “This was planned, this was a group attack and face coverings were used. Those ladies were terrified, this is something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The impact will be profound and they may never ever get over it.

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“You say you thought this was a distraction theft and you were an ordinary man who agreed to be the lookout and then the getaway driver and you say all of this you did not want to do and you ask me to accept that as the truth.

“I reject this.” David Allan, prosecuting, said the robbery took place at the McColls convenience store in Ash Crescent, Nuthall, on December 29, 2020.

He showed CCTV of the incident which captured Rickett, his face covered, holding the door open while Atkin and a third man, who has never been identified, entered the store.

In the clip, Atkins produces a hammer and jumps over the counter while the two petrified female shop workers stand back. He then takes tobacco while the second man marches one of the women into a side room and he empties the contents of a safe.

Both men then leave the store armed with the takings. Mr Allan said: “Mr Rickett’s role is that of the lookout, who remains at the door checking there are no potential witnesses and then the getaway driver, taking the men from the scene.”

The prosecutor said the police identified the defendant’s van and he was arrested around 30 minutes after the robbery happened. He said in December, 2021, his co-defendant Atkin, of Iona Crescent, Bestwood, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to robbery.

Rickett, then of Thornbury Way, Top Valley and now of Cranmer Street, St Ann’s, admitted the same offence after initially denying it. Giving evidence this week, he maintained he did not realise the other two men had weapons and that he did not want to participate in the robbery, which the judge did not accept.

He has 11 previous convictions for 22 offences. Mr Allan read out two victim impact statements made by the female shop workers.

In them, they both told how they suffered flashbacks and struggled to sleep following the incident. Stefan Fox, mitigating, said his client is “ashamed of his involvement,” is a grandfather and has four children.

He said: “He has a landscaping and gardening business and people are employed by him. His family is entirely dependent on him financially. He understands he is looking down the barrel of immediate custody.”