Shocking CCTV footage shows armed robbers holding up service station, as pair jailed

14 May 2024, 07:14

Armed robbery of petrol station

Two armed robbers have been jailed for stealing from a service station using a fake gun and a knife.

Jack Knight, 44, and Grant Bolden, 39, robbed a petrol station in Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex on September 27 last year.

CCTV shows Knight holding up an airgun while Bolden brandishes a knife and jumps behind the counter.

The pair then made off with £900 worth of cigarettes.

Police issued an appeal and Bolden was identified as one of the suspects.

He called officers to say that was him in the appeal, but denied he was involved in the robbery.

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Text messages sent by the pair - including one from Bolden trying to sell the cigarettes for a "bargain" price of £300 - incriminated them further.

They were both arrested on October 20, and Knight's imitation gun was seized.

Both admitted robbery at Chelmsford Crown Court. Knight was jailed for four-and-a-half years and Bolden was given seven years.

Bolden was also found guilty of two separate offences - making threats with a knife and a racially aggravated public order offence.

He had threatened a taxi driver with a knife and called them a racist term, after being asked to pay his fare.

Detective Sergeant David Crane of Essex Police said: “This was a deeply unsettling and frightening incident for the victim, who had no reason to believe the pistol pointed at their head wasn’t a viable firearm.

“Knight and Bolden used weapons to target a service station, all in the name of stealing cash and cigarettes.

“The seriousness of their offending was matched by the determination of our team to find them and bring them to justice.

“We were able to irrefutably link both offenders to this offence, leaving them with no choice but to plead guilty.

“They will both rightly spend a considerable term behind bars.

“During a separate incident, when fairly asked to pay for a taxi he had ordered, Bolden instead felt it acceptable to draw a knife and threaten the driver.

“He then subjected the victim to abusive and racist language, before exiting the taxi without paying the fare.

“I hope each victim feels able to draw some sense of closure and justice from our investigation and today’s sentence.”