Serial Birmingham carjacker who held a family at gunpoint during one horrifying robbery is sentenced
A man has been jailed for 16 years following a series of gunpoint carjackings across Birmingham and Solihull.
Damien Scarlett, 36, from Selsdon Close, Wythall was arrested in March 2024.
He was charged and convicted following a thorough investigation and has now been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Scarlett was initially arrested on March 4 last year, after officers stopped a stolen vehicle which had been taken at gunpoint the day before, from a man who was getting out of the car with his young family in Hall Green.
As officers followed the vehicle, which had already been switched onto false number plates, a firearm was seen being thrown from it. This was recovered and determined to be viable.
A police investigation linked Scarlett with two other gunpoint carjackings in similar circumstances, one near Earlswood Lakes, and another in Solihull where a woman was threatened into handing over her keys.
The Birmingham Neighbourhood Crime Team had been carrying out a thorough investigation into all the offences, working with Intelligence and Roads Policing colleagues to stop Scarlett’s crime spree and bring him to justice.
Scarlett was charged with three counts of robbery, three counts of possession of a firearm, and dangerous driving.
He denied the offences, but was found guilty following a trial, and sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on September 30 to 16 years in prison with an additional four years on licence.
Detective Chief Inspector Neata Simpson, from Birmingham Police, said: “There is no doubt Scarlett is an extremely dangerous individual, who pointed a gun at the young, vulnerable, and elderly.
“We believe that if he hadn’t been arrested he wouldn’t have stopped.
“It’s thanks to incredibly hard work from our dedicated team of officers, working together with colleagues from across the force, that we were able to stop him and bring him to justice.
“The length of his sentence reflects the severity of his crimes and we should all be pleased he is now behind bars.”
