TWO robbers who targeted stores across three counties including Laxfield Co-op have been received jail terms totalling more than 11 years.

East Anglian Daily Times: Daniel Bage.Daniel Bage. (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

Daniel Bage and Shaun Martin, from Northampton, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob and appeared at Norwich Crown Court for sentencing yesterday.

The pair had struck at shops in Norfolk, Suffolk and Northampton.

They were involved in a total of 11 robberies of convenience stores between April and September last year, including in Laxfield, near Woodbridge, and Sheringham and Clenchwarton in Norfolk during which a total of £95,000 was stolen.

Bage, 29, of no fixed abode in the Northampton area, was given the longer sentence of seven years by Judge Mark Lucraft. This was because he had also been sentenced to six years in prison in October 2008 for his part in a robbery and had been released early, so breached his licence through his involvement in the robberies last year.

Martin, 35, of Darwin Walk, Northampton, was sentenced to four years and six months.

Simon Spence, prosecuting, explained how Norfolk and Suffolk police had tracked the activity of the pair’s mobile phones to help strengthen their case.

He said their phones were inactive at the time of the robberies and, in the instance of an August 7 robbery of the Co-op store in Church Street, Sheringham, their phones had been active in nearby Mundesley before and after that robbery – which was a similar trend.

The other robberies were of the Co-op in Main Road, Clenchwarton, on August 22 and at the village stores in High Street, Laxfield, on Wednesday, September 5.

Jonathan Goodman, in mitigation, said Bage had “agreed to play a part” in the conspiracy but insisted he had not been involved in all 11 robberies.

Mary Loram insisted similarly for Martin, saying he was like “a substitute teacher” at a school, as he was not a permanent member of the gang but had “agreed to help a friend”.

Speaking after sentencing, Detective Inspector David Giles, from Suffolk Police, said: “The investigation that has concluded today has come about through excellent cross-border working between forces, the tenacity of a Suffolk officer who followed a suspect’s vehicle which failed to stop and good old-fashioned policing.”