A MAN involved in a £20,000 armed robbery at a supermarket during which a stun-gun was fired at a security guard, has been jailed for eight years. Patrick Mumford arranged for a stolen scooter to be delivered to an area near the Tesco store in Stowmarket

A MAN involved in a £20,000 armed robbery at a supermarket during which a stun-gun was fired at a security guard, has been jailed for eight years.

Patrick Mumford arranged for a stolen scooter to be delivered to an area near the Tesco store in Stowmarket, Suffolk, and acted as the back-up getaway driver, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Mumford, Judge Roderick Newton said that those responsible for the raid had cut through a fence and tunnelled through undergrowth to be close to where cash was delivered.

Mumford, 43, of Joan Gardens, Dagenham, admitted robbery when he appeared in court in June.

He applied to be allowed to change his plea to not guilty last week, but this application was rejected by the judge.

Matthew Gowan, prosecuting, said that shortly after 1pm on July 9 two security guards were collecting cash from Tescos and had parked their van at the side of the store near a cash office.

While his colleague stayed with the van, guard, Alan Britton went back and forth to the cash office.

On his fourth journey he was attacked by two men wearing balaclavas and camouflage clothing, who sprang from bushes nearby.

Mr Gowan said that 'considerable planning' had gone into the robbery, including the cutting of a fence and a tunnel being cut though undergrowth.

Mr Britton was struck in the face but managed to hold on to the cash bag he was carrying while he tried to get back to his van.

One of the robbers then produced a stun gun which was discharged, causing Mr Britton's legs to buckle; he lost his grip on the cash bag which contained £20,000.

Mr Gowan said that as the robbers made off from the scene on a scooter they were chased by members of staff.

He said Mumford was later arrested in Essex after the store manager made a note of the registration number of a transit van he was seen walking back to.

Mr Gowan said the robbers had abandoned the stolen scooter and made off from the scene in another van.

Mark Dacey, for Mumford, said his client had admitted being involved in the robbery as back-up getaway driver, but had not known that a weapon was used in the raid.

He said that Mumford had not made any effort to intervene when the store manager was chasing the robbers along the footpath, and the security guard who was hit by the stun gun had not been seriously injured.