Two out of three men involved in "daylight robbery" at Sherborne pharmacy are jailed - while the third man is let off with a fine by Welsh magistrates
An example of playing the long game with criminal cases - and it paying off in style
Originally published: November 3, 2017
Two of the three men who "ransacked" a Sherborne pharmacy in an act of "daylight robbery" have been jailed today (November 3).
Lewis Delbridge Coombes, of HMP Exeter, and Dean Anthony Glover, of Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, were both jailed at Bournemouth Crown Court for their role in what the judge described as "a brazen example of shoplifting".
Both men had been charged by Dorset Police along with Mathew James Alexander Henderson in relation to the raid, which occurred on September 1 last year at the Abbey Pharmacy on Cheap Street.
But in a legal faux pas, Henderson - who had failed to attend a previous hearing - had already been served a fine by Welsh magistrates for his role in the raid.
Read the full story here.
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One of my best qualities as a journalist is being able to pursue stories over a long period, keeping an watchful eye on situations that develop over time and keeping our readership informed with substantial and relevant updates. In my career to date there have been a number of situations where the full story of a particular incident has taken months to come to fruition. The crime inflicted upon the Abbey Pharmacy is one of the best examples of this in my career, and remains one of the highlights of my tenure as Sherborne reporter.
I first reported on the robbery of the Abbey Pharmacy in September 2016. I was contacted out of the blue via email on September 2 by Mike Hewitson, the proprietor; he was keen to do a story about the "unacceptable" amount of time it had taken Dorset Police to respond when his shop was robbed and his staff were threatened. I immediately called him, arranged to come over and see him the same day, and spent more than half an hour at the site taking pictures and interviewing Mr Hewitson and his staff about what had happened, during which time he gave me a copy of the CCTV footage.
The story led to a number of follow-ups, including a response from West Dorset MP Sir Oliver Letwin and an apology to the pharmacy by Dorset police and crime commissioner Martin Underhill. It brought issues surrounding police funding and public safety into the cold light of day without simply scaremongering; while the pharmacy was subsequently targeted again in an unrelated event in the following months, I resisted any urge to blow this event out of proportion.
I kept a close eye on the Dorset court registers and spoke to Dorset Police regularly as the investigation unfolded. In the run-up to the sentencing of two of the men involved, it transpired one of them had failed to attend court and subsequently been tried and sentenced by magistrates in Aberystwyth. I covered the sentencing at Bournemouth Crown Court in November 2017, more than a year on from the crime, recording the judge's surprise at what had occurred both in the robbery and the sentencing of the third man before this hearing. I quickly secured police mugshots of the criminals after the hearing ended and obtained a quick reaction from Mr Hewitson, whom I had informed ahead of the hearing of my intention to do so.
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