Car-jacker and Hartlepool bookmaker robbers jailed for more than a decade

A police Officer outside of Coral Bookmaker Stranton Green, Hartlepool. Picture by FRANK REID

Wayne Rogan, 32, and Dean Jenkins, 31, robbed Coral bookmakers in Vicarage Gardens, Hartlepool, on November 24 when the deputy manager feared he was going to be stabbed.

The pair got away with almost £500 after raiding the safe in what the staff member described as a “nightmare”.

Rogan was jailed for four years at Teesside Crown Court for the Coral robbery, as well as for the robbery of a Peugeot Partner van the previous day.

That robbery was carried out with 30-year-old Jonathon Whitworth, who was also sentenced for a frightening knifepoint car-jacking in Murray Street on November 25.

Whitworth, of Eton Street, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and was also locked up for four years.

Describing the Coral robbery prosecutor Emma Atkinson, said Rogan and Jenkins tried to rush past the deputy manager and get into the betting office.

One of them said ‘get the knife’ but none was produced.

Miss Atkinson said: “He says they pushed and punched him. He says he genuinely thought they had a knife and he would be stabbed.

“He said ‘it felt like a nightmare’.”

Rogan, of Arkley Crescent, and Jenkins, of Church Street, who was given two years and eight months, fled with £497.

In the car-jacking on November 25, Whitworth pulled a knife on a 25-year-old man and forced him to get out of his Citroen C2 car when it was parked outside Sainsbury’s in Murray Street.

Miss Atkinson said: “The defendant threatened ‘if you ring the police I will cut you up’.”

Lawyers for Rogan and Whitworth said although blades were produced or threatened no physical harm was caused.

Stephen Constantine for Jenkins said it was his first robbery.

Recorder William Lowe QC said: “As you all know these were very serious crimes which have an impact on those who are subject to violence or the threat of violence.”

Zara Brogden, 32, of Bruntoft Avenue, Hartlepool, who was with Whitworth during the car-jacking, was given a 12 month community order for handling stolen goods and assisting in the retention of the car.