THE armed robber who masterminded a £1 million gunpoint raid on York Art Gallery has been jailed for life.

A York judge branded Craig William Townend, a “very, very dangerous man” and a “fantasist” for tying up the gallery staff at gunpoint in 1999. The raid netted him 20 valuable paintings and launched an international police hunt.

Shortly after he was released last year on parole from his 15-year prison sentence for that, Townend, now 39, masqueraded as an undercover policeman and a Scottish nobleman and tied up a stamp dealer and his sons at gunpoint before escaping with a stamp collection worth £400,000.

After both raids, police tracked him and his loot down with help from the art world.

Now an Exeter Crown Court judge has jailed him for life with a recommendation that he serve at least ten years after an Exeter jury convicted him of robbery, possessing a firearm and three charges of false imprisonment.

At York Crown Court in 2000, Judge Tom Cracknell told him: “It strikes me you are a bit of a fantasist, and you put your fantasies into reality. You have become, it seems to me, a very, very dangerous man. You played for high stakes. You lost.”

A York jury convicted Townend of robbery and possessing a firearm with intent. Townend denied all charges at both courts.

After his release Townend made up a false identity as he staked out Steven Bennett’s stamp shop in Torquay before robbing him in July last year.

During the raid, he and his accomplice armed with one real and one fake gun masqueraded as undercover police officers and wore Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein masks. They tied up Mr Bennett and his sons at gunpoint. After the raid, Townend masqueraded as a Scottish aristocrat as he tried to sell the stolen stamps afterwards in London – but the trader he tried to fool was suspicious and tipped off police who arrived while Townend was still in the shop. More stamps were found at his Rotherham home.

In 1999, armed police were waiting when Townend and another man arrived at a pre-arranged meeting with an art dealer to try and sell the stolen paintings. All 20 were recovered and returned to the art gallery.