Burglar stole family car to use in £7k cigarette raid at Tesco Express
A robber who broke into a house and stole a car he later used as a getaway vehicle in a £7,000 cigarette raid at a Willenhall supermarket has been jailed for five years.
Dale Collins, of Webb Road, Tipton, took a Skoda Octavia from a house in Furzebrook Way, Willenhall on January 12 last year, as well as a number of items from the house as a family slept.
He then used the car in a raid on Tesco Express in the High Road area of the town the following day.
Prosecutor Mr Nicholas Smith told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "The family were upstairs sleeping in the house when the burglary took place. There were two cars on the driveway, and one of them was a blue Skoda Octavia worth £25,000."
He said when the family awoke the next morning, they saw that the Skoda was gone. Also missing was a wallet, an iPad and a watch worth £240.
He went on: "The following morning at around 6.10am the car was used as the getaway vehicle in a robbery at the Tesco Express store. A claw hammer was found in the footwell of the Skoda by police which had the DNA of the defendant.
"Customers were in the store, which had just opened. Three men got out of the car and one remained by it, with the boot and the doors open for a quick getaway.
"The men who went into the shop carried a builder's bag and a crowbar."
He said a staff member working on the cigarette kiosk was told to move out of the way. They tipped around £7,000 worth of cigarettes into the bag and the crowbar was used to open the till, from which just over £700 was taken.
CCTV footage was shown to the court, showing one of the men lifting out shelves and tipping the cigarettes into the large bag.
The prosecutor added: "He was arrested on January 15, 2015. Investigators used mobile phone records to prove that he was in the area around the time the offence took place.
"He has a fairly lengthy record, with number of other robberies and burglaries dating back to 2006."
Mr Jon Roe, defending 24-year-old Collins, said: "He has had a good, long look at himself. He is taking steps to break away from certain people and wants to become a law abiding member of society on his release."
Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told Collins: "The purpose of going the that house while a family was sleeping was clearly to steal a getaway car for the robbery, but you also stole other items that presented themselves to you."
Collins pleaded guilty to burglary, taking a vehicle without the owner's consent and also robbery.
