Teenage burglar jailed after cash register raid at Northampton McDonald’s
McDonalds at Riverside Retail Park where there was a robbery.
TERRIFIED staff locked themselves in the toilets of a fast-food restaurant in Northampton when three masked men kicked their way in and stole a cash register.
Three workers at the McDonald’s restaurant, in Riverside retail park, Northampton, had to shut themselves in as the men, all wearing scarves across their faces, smashed through the front doors.
John Lavelle, aged 19, was on licence from prison when he and two accomplices broke into the restaurant just as it was about to open at 4.45am on Thursday, December 8.
Alex Bull, prosecuting at Northampton Crown Court, said the manager was behind the main till area when she saw the men kicking at the front doors.
As the staff locked themselves in the toilets “as a safety measure”, CCTV cameras caught the men smashing their way in and making off with one of the tills holding about £120.
A witness then saw two of the men trying to ride away on a motorbike with its registration plates removed, but it stalled before they eventually managed to start it and speed off.
However, Lavelle was arrested about 20 minutes later in Towcester Road with fragments of glass from the smashed front doors still on his clothes.
His fingerprints were also found on the empty till.
The court heard Lavelle, whose criminal record includes 35 previous convictions, was on licence at the time from a 16-month sentence imposed in January last year for aggravated taking of a car.
Lavelle, of Blisworth Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to 10 months detention by Judge Rupert Mayo.
He said: “You acquired a motorbike without number plates and found yourselves black masks and some form of implement to smash through the front doors of McDonalds in Riverside.
“Unfortunately for you, the staff were there and were terrified by what you did. It is the impact upon them which makes this a more serious case.
“You are only 19 but you have an appalling record for offending.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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