Two "dangerous" men have admitted carrying out a violent west London crime spree "of shocking proportions."
Sean Maher, 26 of no fixed abode, and Jay Jay Manley, 26, of Austin Road, in Battersea, pleaded guilty to having carried out numerous knife point robberies at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, August 15.
The pair terrorised six "vulnerable" victims in separate attacks in Chelsea and Fulham , threatening them at knifepoint before making off with their possessions which included watches and precious jewellery.
Maher also pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, dangerous driving and escape from lawful custody.
A 29-year old man was walking his dog along Franklins Row, in Chelsea, when he was targeted by the men on May 3. They threatened him with a knife, prodding it into the victim’s stomach, one of them then took off his watch and they both fled the scene.
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A week later, on May 10, they preyed on a 45-year-old woman, who had parked her car in Sandilands Road, Fulham.
She was approached by the pair who forced her up against a fence, held a knife close to her and demanded her watch. After she handed it over, they got into a stolen Nissan Qashqai with false plates and drove off.
Two men were targeted by the pair and another unknown man in Britten Street, Chelsea, on the night of May 14.
The victims were approached by the attackers, forcibly separated from each other, threatened with knives and punched. Their possessions, including expensive watches and jewellery were stolen by the trio.
The thieves made off in the same stolen Nissan Qashqai as before.
On May 16, Maher and Manley followed a 26-year-old man back from a restaurant where he had been having dinner in Chelsea. Outside his Anderson Street home they threatened him with a knife before stealing his watch.
The duo targeted another woman on the afternoon of June 21. The 47-year-old was walking in Manresa Road alone at 3.30pm when a stolen Land Rover pulled up beside her.
The two men jumped out of the car and violently robbed the woman of her expensive watch.
The Westminster Crime Squad were about to enter a Seely Road address in Tooting on June 29 when Maher jumped into a car and made off at speed along a pavement before re-joining the road.
Police followed until Maher came up against a refuse truck blocking the road. He mounted the pavement and drove at the bin men and crashed through their bins to get around the blocked road.
No one was injured and police ended the mission to avoid posing a danger to the public.
After further investigation officers forced entry to a flat in Macey House on July 2. They found Maher hiding in a cupboard there.
The flat was searched after Maher’s arrest and evidence linking him to some of the robberies were found.
Maher was taken to a central London police station where he was interviewed by detectives.
Maher who was previously was sentenced to 12-years imprisonment for a previous conviction in 2011 and escaped prison six years into his sentence in October 2017 was charged on July 2 with the following offences - Escaping from prison, three counts of robbery; possession of an offensive weapon, dangerous driving; handling stolen goods, two counts of driving with no insurance, two counts of not being in accordance with a licence and possession of cannabis.
He was taken to court at Westminster Magistrates Court and remanded into prison custody until August 15. Since first being charged he has been further charged with another three robberies involving knives.
The investigation into the robberies continued and in July, the second suspect, Manley, was arrested and charged with three of the robberies (Franklins Row, SW3; Britten Street SW3 and Sandilands Road, SW6).
He was also charged with three offences of possession of offensive weapons.
He was remanded into custody and appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on July 18 where he was remanded into custody until August 15. While in custody, he was further charged with the robberies in Anderson Street and Manresa Road.
The duo will be sentenced on September 28.
The investigating officer from Westminster Crime Squad, Detective Constable Tony Holley, said: “These two men embarked on a crime spree of shocking proportions. They identified and targeted victims who were all vulnerable and preyed further on their vulnerability, using knives to cause even more fear, just so they could steal what was not theirs to take.
“I was present when Sean Maher drove off from police on June 29 and in my time as a police officer, I do not think I have seen much more dangerous behaviour than his that day.
"At 7.30am whilst members of the public including children on their way to school, using the very pavements he drove along to evade capture, anyone unlucky enough to have been in his way would have been simply mown down.
“The sheer level of dangerousness to the public that these men posed cannot be underestimated and it was fortunate that all the victims succumbed to their demands as I shudder to think what lengths they would have gone to in order to achieve their aim.
"In Maher’s case, it is only aggravated by the fact that he should have still been in prison at the time for previous violent offending and further aggravated by the fact that they were using stolen, disguised, uninsured and unlicensed vehicles to facilitate their getting around.
“I have spoken to the victims in this case and they suffered varying levels of trauma from these robberies – one of the male victims was visibly shaking when he viewed a picture of Maher three months after the robbery.
“The investigation into these offences, including the manhunt for Maher, was challenging and complex. It is incredibly satisfying to have taken these men off the streets and protected the public from them and above all, most satisfying to be able to provide some closure and relief to the victims so that they can get on with putting this all behind them as best they can.”
