Police release picture of a Doncaster robber who snatched money from a woman at cash machine
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Lee Whitehouse, aged 32, of Broughton Avenue, Bentley, Doncaster, snatched the cash from a woman at an Asda store in Doncaster as her three children stood nearby, according to a Sheffield Crown Court hearing.
Andrew Smith, prosecuting, told the hearing today, August 3, how the woman had left her three children near the trolley bay and had gone to the nearby cash machine when the defendant barged into her and snatched money from her hand.
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Hide AdHe said: “The defendant barged into her and said, ‘you are not having that’, and snatched the money forcibly from her hand.”
Whitehouse fled in a VW Passatt being driven by an unidentified accomplice after the robbery about 2.45pm, on May 18.
The defendant, who has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to robbery and also admitted making off without paying for fuel at a petrol station on May 16 at Morrisons, on York Road, Doncaster.
Judge Jeremy Richardson QC acknowledged Whitehouse has alcohol and drug problems and has mental health problems and depression which he has been addressing while remanded in custody.
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Hide AdHowever, Judge Richardson pointed out that Whitehouse had only just been released from prison for a previous offence when he committed these latest two crimes.
He told Whitehouse: “The most serious aspect – apart from the robbery being serious in itself – was the fact the children were watching their mother being robbed.”
Judge Richardson sentenced Whitehouse to two years of custody.