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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Dave Finlay

Burka-clad armed robbers who raided Scots jewellers slapped with new restrictions on web and phone use

Two members of an armed gang who donned burkas to commit a violent robbery had serious crime prevention orders imposed on them on Friday for the maximum period allowed by law.

Anthony Wheeldon, 40, and Connor Willis, 24, will be subject to restrictions under the orders, such as limiting access to the internet and mobile phones, for five years following their release from jail terms they are currently serving.

Both men took part in a raid on Walker the Jeweller in Dundee's Union Street when some of the gang dressed in full length Islamic style robes and face coverings on September 23 2019.

The raiders were armed with an axe, hammer and mallet and brandished weapons at staff and assaulted a customer who was hit on the head with the mallet.

They smashed display cabinets but a staff member activated an anti-robbery device which filled the premises with a thick fog and they managed to get away with two Rolex watches worth £17,850.

Willis was also part of a gang which staged another violent robbery at an Edinburgh jewellery business on August 31 in 2019.

They forced entry to Miena Jewellery in the city's Great Junction Street with a sledgehammer and threatened to kill the proprietor Wail al-Khamis.

He was struck with an axe as he fought back against the intruders and let off a fire extinguisher before three raiders fled to join an accomplice waiting in a stolen car. Stock worth an estimated £27,000 was lost in the robbery.

Wheeldon was jailed for 11 years and Willis for 12 years last year after admitting their involvement in the raids.

The pair, from the Manchester area, were also told they would be under supervision for further periods, with Wheeldon being monitored for four years and Willis for five.

Following their convictions the Crown applied to have serious crime prevention orders imposed on them.

Lord Beckett, who sentenced the pair, agreed to make the orders for the maximum period available during a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The judge said: "I consider that there is a risk, which is both real and significant, that you will offend in this way again."

He pointed out that Wheeldon had been assessed as posing a high risk of reoffending and Willis as presenting an extremely high risk of reoffending.

The judge said he concluded it was appropriate and necessary to make the orders for the five year period in order to prevent and disrupt their involvement in serious crime in Scotland.

Lord Beckett said that when he sentenced them along with a co-accused, Dean King, 28, from Lanarkshire, who was jailed for nine years and two months for his part in the Dundee robbery, that he had remarked that the offences involved considerable planning and sophistication in their execution.

Defence lawyers had argued that shorter terms could be imposed on the men following their sentencing in November.

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