North Yorkshire is suffering a plague of gun raids, a York judge has warned.

Judge Crabtree: plague of offences

Judge Jonathan Crabtree spoke out at York Crown Court as he put one of the culprits behind bars for nine years.

Gun-wielding Stuart Hargrave, aged 26, burst into a Harrogate post office less than three months after finishing a four-year prison sentence for robbery, a York jury heard.

It was his second post office raid in seven days.

Sending him back behind bars for nine years, Judge Jonathan Crabtree said: "There has been a plague of this sort of offences all over the county.

"There are raids on building societies, sub-post offices and anywhere else that has got cash.

"In burst people like you with masks and waving guns."

The evidence against Hargrave had been overwhelming, he said.

The jury at York Crown Court took just one hour to convict him of the raid on Harlow Hill post office, Harrogate, on October 13 1997 and of a similar raid in Middlesbrough on October 6 1997.

They also found him guilty unanimously of having an imitation handgun with intent to commit a crime at both robberies.Hargrave, of Roworth Road, Middlesbrough, had denied all the charges.

But he left DNA samples near the Harrogate post office, the jury heard and his fellow armed robber Patrick Blakey, of Middlesbrough, gave evidence against him. Blakey is currently serving five years for the two robberies.

The getaway driver for the Harrogate robbery, Paul Anderson, of North Ormesby, also got five years for his crime.The judge described Hargrave's evidence as a "pack of lies".

The court heard Hargrave admit he had travelled from Middlesbrough to Harrogate via Knaresborough with Blakey on the day of the Harlow Hill raid.

But he claimed he got out of the car to avoid being involved in the robbery.

Blakey had started making masks and given him one to try on, he claimed.

"I put it straight on over my head because he asked me to, there didn't seem to be any harm in it, then Blakey told me they were doing a robbery and I panicked," the jury heard him say.

"I was scared. I had no intention of getting involved and when they mentioned it I took the mask off and gave it to Anderson who was holding a gun.

"If I'd have seen that before, I wouldn't have got in the car. I said 'I'm not doing no armed robbery'; he tried to coax me to do the robbery with him.

" I was scared, I wanted to get out and go and I got out and left, leaving the others in the car, Blakey, Anderson, and a third man."

Hargraves had claimed he had panicked when Anderson had given him some money because he thought it was loot from a robbery.

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