Police welcome jail terms handed to Oldbury hammer raid thugs
Police this afternoon welcomed the lengthy jail sentences handed to two raiders who threatened bar staff with knives and hammers during a botched robbery at a Black Country Conservative club.
Gavin Stephens and Kalem Dunnaway were arrested as they tried to flee Brandhall Conservative Club, after threatening workers minutes before.
They forced a barmaid to hand over cash from a safe. Two bar staff along with the partner of one of the women and his 16-year-old son were then locked in the cellar.
On Friday, Stephens, 20, from Hackett Road, and Dunnaway, 18, from Mount Road, both Rowley Regis, were sentenced to six years and three months and four and a half years respectively after pleading guilty to robbery.
The pair broke into the club on Ashes Road, Oldbury, as they closed just after midnight on May 18.
But police had already been alerted by a secret alarm and arrived as the gang were fleeing.
Dunnaway was arrested at the scene and Stephens was stopped nearby after a footchase. A third man was never caught.
Dc Darren Brown, from the force's Criminal Investigation Department, said: "These pair put the bar staff and their family through a dreadful ordeal. I am pleased that they have received a significant custodial sentence which will remove the opportunity for them to commit further offences for some considerable time."
