Bungling petrol station burglar tells Boston police, ‘Yeh, I did it’

Darren Matthews, 49, of Double Street in Spalding, and Marcus Roberts-Fogarty, 37, of Bakewell Street in Donington, admitted a charge of non-dwelling burglary following the incident reported just before 11pm at the Esso garage in John Adams Way on Wednesday August 18.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that the two men attempted to make off with the store’s till but were stopped by police before they could escape.

Anthony Chan, prosecuting, told the court two members of staff were working at the petrol station when Matthews entered and approached the till.

Mr Chan said Matthews tried to grab the till but the male worker pressed the panic button and fled into the office where a female member of staff was present.

The cashier saw Roberts-Fogarty enter the petrol station and noticed they were together. He heard Roberts-Fogarty ask Matthews, “What’s going on?.”

The court heard both members of staff locked themselves in the office while Matthews tried to use the till to smash their way out of the shop.

Mr Chan said the pair eventually forced their way into the office where the female member of staff refused their demand to let them out a fire exit.

The male member of staff managed to push past the two men and let in police who had arrived at the secene.

Matthews, who asked for another offence to be taken into consideration during his sentencing, made admissions at the scene stating, “Yeh, I did it.” He also admitted what he had done during his police interview.

Roberts-Fogarty, who asked for four other offences to be taken into consideration by the judge, also made admissions at the scene, commenting, “What was I suppose to do, I owe people money.” But he made no comment during police interview.

Neil Sands, mitigating for Matthews, said he had been taking positive steps to turn his life around.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, said Roberts-Fogarty had originally wanted to join the army but suffered with depression following a family bereavement and developed a drugs problem.

At the time of the offence Roberts-Fogarty had managed to free himself of drugs after finding a new partner, but was still receiving threats, Mr Cranmer-Brown told the court.

Mr Cranmer-Brown added that Roberts-Fogarty did not know in advance of the intention to take the till and did not anticipate any violence towards the cashier.

Passing sentence Recorder Simon King told both men they were not young adults “who didn’t know any better.”

“I have no doubt the two employees were extremely frightened,” Recorder King said.

“There were victims on the premises.”

Matthews was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment.

Roberts-Fogarty was jailed for three years and also ordered to serve an eight week suspended sentence which was passed the day before the burglary.

A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: “We would like to thank the public for their speedy reporting of this incident which led to these arrests.”