One of the gang jailed for burgling soccer star Raheem Sterling once held a postmaster and his wife hostage in a 10-hour ordeal.
John Barlow, 58, was given seven and a half years this week after he and two other men targeted the rich and famous, including the Manchester City ace and Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay.
As he began his sentence, Post Office boss Melvyn Kennealy told how Barlow had led a gang who bound him and wife Ingrid with tape after bursting into their home.
Melvyn, 71, told how the crooks overpowered them and demanded to know about the security in their Post Office next door.
He said: “They didn’t talk much. It was all about the alarm, how it worked and were there pressure pads.
“They were armed with a chisel, jemmy and a big screwdriver. You could tell they meant business.”
The safe at the Post Office in Wrexham, north Wales, was on a timer, so the gang waited all night.
Melvyn added: “I wasn’t terrified. I’m ex-Army and a Jehovah’s Witness, so my faith helped.
"I was angry they’d got in my house and treated my wife that way.”
Barlow was caught by a footprint and jailed for 16 years in 2002.
Melvyn said: “They were very professional.
"If they turned their hands to working they’d have done well.
“Barlow said to Ingrid, ‘Nice house you’ve got here’. Ingrid told him, ‘You could have something like this if you were only prepared to actually work for a living’.
“He laughed and said, ‘This is my work’.”
