McDonald's raider faces life sentence

A JUDGE has warned a Bexhill man found guilty of his part in a £4,800 armed raid that he is considering a life sentence.

When police searched a Dorset Road flat occupied by Alan Hollingsworth, 20, they found two imitation handguns and a baton used when Hollingsworth and two accomplices held up McDonald's restaurant at Ravenside (pictured above).

Hollingsworth, together with Christopher Smith, 18, of Hampden Park, was found guilty at Lewes Crown Court of armed robbery at the Big Mac restaurant on September 29 last year and of possession of an imitation firearm in the course of the raid.

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Christopher Tambeh, 20, of Bexhill Road, St Leonards had earlier admitted the offences but Hollingsworth and Smith had pleaded not guilty.

Sergeant Ian Lucas, formerly of Rother CID, together with Detective Sergeant Leighton Morgan of Rother CID led a long and detailed police inquiry which resulted in last Thursday's convictions.

Sergeant Lucas said the three men had marched into McDonald's just before closing time on the Wednesday night, put a gun to manager Lynette Streek's head and demanded that she open the safe.

In court, Judge Richard Brown commended the manager for her cool and courageous response to the danger and awarded her 500 from the High Sheriff's Fund.

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He told the accused that he would pass sentence on them on October 24.

He warned Hollingsworth, who has a previous conviction for armed robbery, that he was considering a life sentence in his case.

Sergeant Lucas said the men had made off in a Ford Orion after the raid. But a police officer made a note of the car, which had been parked in the bus stop layby in De La Warr Road opposite McDonald's.

As a result of inquiries about the car, police raided Hollingsworth's home and seized bags containing the stolen cash together with the imitation guns and a baton which had been used to strike another member of McDonald's staff.

Sergeant Lucas said: "This has been a long and protracted police inquiry involving gathering a lot of forensic evidence, including hairs and interviewing witnesses at length."

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