Gunman admits RMI robbery

From the The Bolton News, first published Friday 3rd Aug 2007.

A MASKED robber tied up and gagged a man and threatened a barmaid at gunpoint - so he could steal cash to take his ill father on holiday.

Mark Green armed himself with a realistic replica handgun and donned a balaclava before he ambushed Lynne Wharton and her partner, David Jones, as they left Horwich RMI social club on Sunday night.

Green forced them back into the club where Mrs Wharton had just finished her shift and tied Mr Jones to a chair and gagged him while he stole the takings.

But Green, aged 26, was arrested at the scene after Mrs Wharton activated a silent alarm.

Just four days after the raid, he appeared in the dock where he admitted frogmarching Mrs Wharton around the premises and making her unlock tills and safes - repeatedly saying "sorry".

Bolton Crown Court heard that Green was planning to spend the money to take his cancer-stricken father to Torquay on holiday.

But he was caught by police with £1,776 in a bag as he left the premises at 12.10am on Monday.

A police officer who arrived at the scene chased him and he was stopped by dog handlers in Chorley New Road as he fled.

He admitted the crime to police immediately.

Mrs Wharton, aged 55, had already recognised unemployed Green's voice - because he is a regular at the bar, which is just yards from his flat in Chorley New Road.

Both she and Mr Jones, aged 48, were left unhurt but shaken.

Green pleaded guilty yesterday to robbery, possession of an imitation firearm, and the false imprisonment of Mr Jones.

Judge Charles Bloom QC said that Green faced an "inevitable" jail term when he returned to the court on Friday, August 24, for sentence.

Graham Robinson, defending, said: "I make no application for bail because it is clear that he will be given a custodial sentence of some length."

Det Con Bob Lane, who investigated the raid, said: "This was a terrifying ordeal for the two victims.

"They did not know the gun was fake and they were understandably petrified to be suddenly confronted by a man in a balaclava in the dark.

"What followed was a situation where he tied up one of victims and threatened the other with a gun while he took takings that he knew would be in the club following a busy weekend.

"It was an amateurish attempt at a robbery, but there was a certain element of planning needed for Green to ambush the couple on their way home."

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