Hove father jailed for part in violent shop raid gang (From The Argus)

Hove father jailed for part in violent shop raid gang

11:48am Tuesday 24th July 2012 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter

A father was part of an organised criminal gang that attacked shop customers with semi-automatic guns, sledgehammers and a machete.

Marcus Fairchild and his gang raided cash and carry stores and escaped with £15,000 in laundry bags.

The 35-year-old, of Old School Place, off Hangleton Road, Hove, was only stopped when officers caught him and the other robbers in the act.

Fairchild, who had previously been acquitted of holding a G4S van at Tesco in Church Road, Hove, at gunpoint for £60,000 in 2008, appeared at the Old Bailey in London.

He admitted conspiracy to rob and firearms offences and was jailed for seven years and nine months.

Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad investigated the offences which took place at two large cash and carry firms in Barking, East London, in December.

Officers stopped Fairchild as he tried to rob a cash and carry in Kingsbridge Road, Barking, on December 21.

Fairchild, Leon Eaton, 31, of Yorkshire Gardens, Edmonton, and Nacquain Pryce, 25, of Angel Close, Edmonton, were in the shop armed with semi-automatic hand guns, a machete and sledgehammers when officers arrived.

One man had already been pistol-whipped by the thieves as they raided the shop in search of money.

Officers discovered two laundry bags containing stolen cash – £15,000 – from two large cash and carry firms that had been targeted by the men.

A fourth man, Linton Murray, 25, of Ladysmith Road, Edmonton, ran from the scene and tried to flee in a waiting stolen Vauxhall Zafira before officers stopped him.

Detective Constable Mike Baines said: “This was a well planned robbery committed |by organised criminals who stood to benefit financially at the expense of hard working members of the local community.

“Flying Squad officers and other police units were able to respond quickly and arrest the offenders at the scene of the crime.”

Eaton, Pryce and Murray were jailed for seven years each.