Bristol betting shops 'clown robber' jailed

A criminal dubbed the "Clown Prince of Robbers" has been jailed for 11 years for a series of raids, including two attacks on Bristol betting shops.

Anthony Perry, 31, also targeted cash vans and a post office, striking across the south of England.

He handed himself in after a police mugshot of him posing with two cigarettes behind his ears was released.

Perry was jailed at Inner London Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to nine counts of robbery, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

His accomplice Fabian Dawson, 29, of Druid Street, central London, was sentenced in May to 10 years and six months in prison for 12 counts of robbery.

Perry achieved national notoriety when police published his picture and offered £10,000 for information leading to his arrest. He and Dawson stole more than £30,000 in their four-month crime spree that began in late July last year.

On August 23 last year he and Dawson raided a bookmakers in Moravian Road, Kingswood, taking £4,500.

They burst in and Perry jumped over the counter, demanding cash in what was described by police at the time as a "soft, polite voice". While he forced staff to empty tills, Dawson demanded money from the gaming machines. Both men then ran off along Regent Street.

Less than a fortnight later, on September 5, a second Bristol bookmakers, in Fishponds Road, was targeted and £700 was taken.

On the same day a post office in Cheltenham was also robbed and the men made off with £4,235 in cash.

Several London bookmakers were also raided along with security guards returning to cash vans outside shops in Basingstoke and Leamington Spa.

CCTV footage showed Perry, of no fixed address, wearing novelty sunglasses and gaudy tracksuits during some of the robberies.