A robber has been jailed for more than four years for carrying out a frightening knife-point raid at a Stapenhill convenience store after eagle-eyed police officers spotted his getaway vehicle.

Keith Thompson was one of two men who threatened staff at Hadfield Stores, in Rosliston Road, with a knife before escaping with a quantity of cash in a white Ford Transit van which was stopped by police within hours of the robbery.

Thompson, 35, of Huntingdon Road, Stapenhill, has already appeared at Stafford Crown Court where he admitted the robbery which happened on Tuesday, April 4. He also admitted threatening a man with a knife at the same premises.

He has now appeared at the crown court to be sentenced.

Keith Thompson has been jailed for 54 months for robbery

The robbery happened at around 10.10pm on April 4 and luckily no-one was injured. The court heard that police arrived quickly and were told by staff that the men had escaped in a small white Transit van and it was later tracked down at 2.15am the next day in the Sycamore Road area of Stapenhill.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said after the case: "Thankfully no-one was injured in this incident, but staff in the store were threatened with weapons and it must have been a frightening ordeal for them.

"Thanks to excellent work by our officers we were able to arrest the offenders a short time after the offence occurred."

Thompson admitted his part in the raid and has now been jailed for a total of four years and six months.
His accomplice has been found guilty of the same offences but is due to be sentenced at the conclusion of a separate trial.