CCTV shows dramatic moment 'model pupil', 15, held up bank workers at gunpoint in Grand Theft Auto-style robbery
- - Boy stole £2,000 when he held up the Barclays Bank, in Liverpool
- - Footage shows him brandishing imitation gun at cashiers
- - Teen told staff 'Don't do anything stupid, I'm not messing around'
- - Judge said at previous hearing the child was 'acting like a real-life action video game'
- - The raid was carried out in the week Grand Theft Auto V was released
- - The boy is ordered to serve 40 months in a Young Offenders' Institution
By ROB COOPER and LUCY CROSSLEY
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This is the dramatic moment a 15-year-old boy, described as a 'model pupil', held up frightened bank workers in a video game-style robbery.
In CCTV footage taken during the raid, the schoolboy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, can be seen brandishing the imitation firearm as he burst into the Barclays bank in Liverpool, Merseyside.
Dressed all in black, with the fur-lined hood of his coat pulled tightly over his head, the teenager is shown pointing the weapon at staff members during the raid, which he carried out in the week Grand Theft Auto V was released.
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Raid: This is the terrifying moment a 15-year-old boy held up frightened bank workers with an imitation firearm in a video game-style robbery at a branch of Barclays bank in Liverpool, Merseyside
Hold up: Dressed all in black, with the fur-lined hood of his coat pulled tightly over his head, the teenager is shown pointing the weapon
at staff members during the raid
He also pointed the weapon at customers in the bank, after walking into the building brandishing the firearm and telling frightened cashiers: 'Don’t do anything stupid. I just got out of prison after five years. I’m not ****ing messing around.'
The young thief then fled with more than £2,000.
District Judge Ian Lomax told Liverpool Youth Court last month that the teenager was 'acting like a real-life action video game'.
However, Judge Clement Goldstone said 'it was not that sort of case at all' as the boy's family would not allow him to watch 'inappropriate' television programmes, films or video games.
As the cashiers had filled a bag with money they added a 'dummy bundle' which is designed to detonate and spray dye over the cash when it leaves the building, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Caught on camera: The boy also can be seen to point the gun at customers during the raid
His mother found a stash of cash stained with dye and a fake firearm in his bedroom and turned him over to police.
Kim Egerton, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that after being questioned by family members the boy admitted he had carried out a bank robbery.
'She (his mother) had raised him to understand if he did something wrong there would be consequences and though she loved her son it was the right thing to do,' she said.
The court was told that cashiers Steven Riley and Abbi Melling had been terrified.
Raid: The boy burst into the Barclays Bank in Liverpool last month brandishing an imitation fire arm and demanded that staff hand
over money
Robbery: The boy made off with more than £2,000 following the raid but was handed over to the police by his mother who was shocked
to find a stash of cash, stained with dye, and a fake firearm in his bedroom
In a victim impact statement, Mr Riley said he had since found it difficult to sleep and had been having counselling to help him deal with the stress of what happened to him, as well as they worry that it could happen again.'
He said that he was extremely afraid at the time when the gun was being pointed at him,' Miss Egerton said.
Miss Melling said that during the raid she felt 'completely helpless'.
'She was so scared she didn't even press the panic alarm,' Miss Egerton said. The cashier said the raider did not appear scared and she thought he was 'blase'.
She said she felt 'dread' and 'anxious' that it might happen to her again and since the robbery she has been thinking it could happen again.
Theresa Loftus, defending, said: 'The facts of this case are as striking as they are tragic.'
She said the case was tragic for the victims of the defendant's crime, but also for his own family, who turned the boy in to the police when they had no other evidence against him.
'As such, my lord, the honesty, integrity, and decency of this family shone through by their actions on September 22 this year. They were instrumental in bringing this young man to justice,' Miss Loftus said, adding that they were 'brave and exceptional actions'.
The boy's mother has been unable to work since due to stress, the court heard.
The youngster was ordered to serve 40 months in a Young Offenders' Institution for carrying out the raid on September 20.
Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, told the boy: 'However innocent you look now, as you sit in your smart suit, you did not look innocent when you held up bank staff at gunpoint and terrified them.'
Ultra violent: An image from the video game Grand Theft Auto V. The robbery was carried out in the same week the game was released
Judge Goldstone said the teenager had planned the robbery at that particular branch because he thought it would be a 'soft touch'.
The court heard that the boy wanted cash because he 'envied' the material possessions of his friends but also to reduce the financial burden on his family, who were having to pay for private tuition for him as his school grades were declining.
The judge said the boy 'carried on with his young life as if nothing had happened' after the raid.
'Two days later, your mother found the money which you had hidden away, and then, later the same day, the gun,' the judge told him.
'It was your mother who bravely and in a remarkable display of public spirit decided to take you to the police station, despite you pleading with her not to.'
Judge Goldstone said the actions of the boy's mother were 'all the more commendable' when he compared it to other cases where some parents were prepared to lie to protect their children when they knew they had committed serious crimes.
He said he accepted the boy's remorse was genuine but that custody was necessary, not simply to punish the defendant but to 'show other boys that, if they choose to commit offences of this kind, they will be sent to detention'.
The boy, who was said to have been doing well in school before his grades dipped this year, admitted two charges of robbery and one of possession of an imitation firearm, a realistic looking BB gun.
Wearing a black suit, white shirt and tie, he sat impassively in the dock as the sentence was passed. He looked briefly over to his mother and the rest of his family as he was led down.
Judge Goldstone refused to lift the boy’s anonymity, saying the family had 'been through enough'.
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