THE traumatised owner of a Hampshire jewellery business has told how he tried to fight off a hammer-wielding gang targeting one of his stores.
David Mellor, owner of David Mellor and Sons Jewellers, which has stores in Totton and Eastleigh, threw himself at Luke Peverall and Tom White when they forced their way into his shop after racing up on a motorcycle.
They managed to grab watches worth thousands of pounds despite Mr Mellor’s best efforts to stop the robbery, in which he was thrown to the concrete pavement.
Sentencing Peverall and White were later traced by police to an address in Berkshire, and now the pair face five years behind bars after admitting to conspiring to rob the jewellers.
But Mr Mellor told the Daily Echo he has been left “angry and disappointed” by the lenient sentence handed out by the judge.
Dramatic CCTV footage shows the two robbers drive up to the jewellers, in Waterloo Court, Andover, on a motorcycle and rush into the store.
It shows what is believed to be White, the pillion passenger, wielding a claw hammer and smashing a glass display container holding watches ranging between £2,000 to more than £10,000.
They are thrown into a rucksack while the motorcyclist waits by the doorway.
Mr Mellor, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, appears and grapples with the helmet-wearing intruder, despite having limited mobility following hip and knee replacements.
A tussle ensues and Mr Mellor, 62, is thrown to the pavement outside the shop as both the intruder and himself fall through the shop door.
White and Peverall flee the scene as Mr Mellor manages to grab the rucksack.
After sentencing, Mr Mellor said the robbery has affected him and the staff in his shop.
He said: “Every time a motorbike or a car goes up Waterloo Court my heart goes into my mouth thinking that it is going to happen again.
“My staff are twitchy, they are as nervous as hell, like a cat on a hot tin roof.
“Every time something goes up the street they are looking at it to see what it is.”
David Mellor outside his shop that was targeted by armed raiders
The two men were arrested at an address in Reading after a phone found in the bag left at the scene linked the defendants to the robbery.
Peverall, 24, of no fixed address, and White, 26, of Swallow Fields, Iver, spoke only to confirm their names as they appeared at Winchester Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to conspiring to rob the jewellers.
Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said 18 watches were targeted in the raid, but one Rolex, a Cartier 18-carat white gold watch and a Cartier Road-ster were taken.
Tom White
Luke Peverall
Miss Maylin went on to tell the court that two days before the incident on Monday, September 8, CCTV footage from both the Eastleigh and Andover stores shows the defendants entering the shop, asking questions and appearing to assess which shop would be the better target.
Passing sentence, Recorder of Winchester Judge Keith Cutler, said: “I want you to know that shops will have the protection of the courts.”
“Mr Mellor came to see what was going on then there was a struggle in which he was injured and this is the risk with carrying out the sort of criminal activity that you were intending on.
“There was a very high risk that someone would be hurt and indeed someone was and that was Mr Mellor.”
Mr Mellor has confirmed that they now have full-time security in all three stores.
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