A 23-year-old student from the Southwest of England who has pleaded guilty to 18 different charges, including five robberies and three attempted robberies, had plans to steal £100,000 ($165,000) and then distribute the money to good causes.
Disguised in a curly wig and dark sunglasses Stephen Jackley, a student at the University of Worcester in the English West Midlands, entered banks, building societies and betting shops in three English counties between September and December 2007 and demanded money at gunpoint.
Whilst the staff and customers at the various locations in Devon, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, where Jackley committed his crimes were not aware of it at the time the guns he carried were imitation.
As the
Daily Mail reports CCTV footage of the robberies was released by the police but did not assist in discovering Jackley's identity. The same paper tells of how Jackley even sent a letter to police, simply signed with the initials RH, in which he told them that somebody they had arrested in connection with one robbery was the wrong man.
Jackley's identity was finally revealed to the authorities in Britain as a result of an offense he committed in the U.S.
Whilst in the U.S. in May 2008 he tried to buy a real gun from a shop in Vermont using false identification. Jackley was apprehended by police after crashing his car whilst attempting to escape.
Finding his University of Worcester student card and notes revealing the details of further robberies he intended to commit the FBI contacted British police who went to his student accommodation and found his imitation guns and a written account of the robberies he committed in 2007. Ironically, bearing in mind the supposedly philanthropic nature of his crimes, one of his future crimes involved robbing a charity shop.
A device which it was feared might be a bomb was also found but turned out not to be dangerous. However an evacuation of the surrounding buildings did take place.
Sentenced to ten months in prison by the U.S. authorities and fined £1,220 ($2000), Jackley only got to serve six months of his sentence before his extradition to Britain
Upon his return to Britain he was charged with 21 offenses in all, 18 of which he has now admitted during a hearing at Worcester Crown Court.
And considerable evidence of the motivation behind his crimes has emerged.
According to the
Daily Telegraph he has written to a paper in his home town of Sidmouth in Devon declaring:
I will continue to take from the rich and give to the poor. I am the modern day Robin Hood
Robin Hood is an heroic outlaw, featuring heavily in English Folklore, who supposedly lived in or around Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, Central England. Opinion as to when he might have lived varies, with the 13th to 15th centuries being the period most favored. Together with his band of "merry men", Robin Hood is famous for "stealing from the rich and giving to the poor".
Described as a loner by fellow students, Jackley also wrote in his diaries of his disdain for multinational corporations and of how his plan to steal £100,000 ($165,000) and then give it away would be executed. There was even mention of the guilt he felt at distressing his intended victims.
In addition it has transpired that Jackley, whose Facebook page confirms his support for the International Marxist Tendency and interest in Buddhism, was arrested in the Netherlands three years ago on suspicion of having committed a robbery at knife point. But he fled the country before he could be charged. However the Dutch authorities were able to supply their British counterparts with samples of his DNA which assisted in connecting him to some of his crimes in Britain.
Jackley faces a possible life sentence for the armed robberies to which he has confessed.
