Makro rioters jailed after night of fear
Published 3 Feb 2012 19:25
LOOTERS who smashed their way into a Reading wholesalers and ran off with thousands of pounds worth of goods during last summer's riots were jailed tonight.
Staff at Makro in Elgar Road South fled in terror to the back of the closed store when a mob of around 30 people stormed in shortly after midnight on August 9 and made off with goods worth around £14,000.
Seven men arrested in connection with the raid were sentenced at Reading Crown Court but showed little remorse as they smirked and chortled their way through the hearing in front of a packed public gallery.
Recorder Alper Riza said: "In the cold light of winter, we must sentence you for offences committed in the heat of last August.
"But soon the summer will be upon us and the law-abiding members of the public will expect the courts to punish you to deter you from engaging in violent disorder and burglary again.
"The court must take into account that we have obligations to do what we can to ensure the protection of the public in their homes, at their businesses and in their streets.
"This is imperative and it is not possible now for the court to protect the neighbourhoods ravaged in riots, or the people who were injured or those that suffered damage.
"Severe sentences must follow those who deliberately took part in events of this magnitude and input fear and damage in a community.
"All of you will be punished for what you have done to deter you from engaging in this behaviour ever again.
"What happened in Reading in comparison to the riots in other areas like London, Birmingham and Manchester is of a lower degree of intensity and this will be taken into account."
Conall Bascombe-McCarthy, 19, of Byworth Close, Whitley, was jailed for four years on separate drugs charges and a year concurrently after a jury convicted him of of violent disorder, burglary and handling stolen goods when CCTV showed him bursting into the store.
The court heard he was on bail when the riot happened, having been arrested a week earlier in a park carrying four wraps of heroin, with another 20 wraps, and 16 of crack cocaine nearby.
Bascombe-McCarthy was already on bail then, having been arrested on June 10 when officers found 11 heroin wraps and eight crack cocaine wraps on him and 44 heroin wraps and 24 crack cocaine wraps in his bedroom.
Defending, Simon Kitchen said: "He takes full responsibility for his actions and he is remorseful.
"He accepts he did wrong and in every other way, he has been working hard to start a life for himself.
"He had limited savings and when his grandfather died, he was keen to get to Barbados for the funeral, and a friend said that delivering drugs were a quick way of making money.
"He quickly realised what he was doing was wrong and tried to back out of the operation, but this was no an easy thing to do and his family were threatened."
Mr Kitchen said on the night of the Makro raid, "he was not in the initial wave of people and given his youth and naivety, he thought, 'what have I got to lose?'"
"He is ashamed of what he did during a period where he seems to have seriously gone off the rails, but he has learnt his lesson", he added.
Paul Bentham, 40, from Shropshire, who admitted violent disorder, burglary and handling stolen goods, was jailed for 14 months.
The court heard he was seen throwing stolen burglar alarms over a fence near Makro, and Recorder Riza interjected: "So he was burgling to prevent people form being burgled?"
Mike Roques, defending, said: "He was the only one on the CCTV footage to not cover his head, which was reckless to the point of idiocy, and in his drunken and drugged up state he took a burglar alarm.
"My client wants to stay in custody because he has been clean from Class A drugs for 140 days and he doesn't feel ready to be released. He is a 40-year-old man desperate to break the cycle."
Noel Lewendon, 22, of Spencer Road, and James Lee, 27, of Staverton Road, who also admitted violent disorder, burglary and handling stolen goods, were jailed for eight months.
A 17-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons and admitted violent disorder, was given a 12 month youth rehabilitation order. CCTV showed he did not enter the store.
Jamie Brooker, 21, of Brayford Road, and Darren Thornhill, 18, of Long Barn Lane, were given six months in prison, suspended for two years, and 150 hours unpaid work, after admitting handling stolen goods.
The court heard the pair were seen the morning after the raid picking up a television - stolen from Makro - from a wooded area in Waterloo Meadows. Defence counsel Hannah Kinch claimed they were on their way to the Jobcentre, when they "stumbled" upon the television.
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