London -
He is unlikely to go down in history as a criminal mastermind.
After Googling “how to rob a bank” at his local library, Jordan Heslin clearly thought he had a foolproof plan - but it seems one area he failed to research was how to make a quick exit.
The bungling thief passed staff a note politely asking them to hand over thousands of pounds, but then became flummoxed when the bank’s automatic door failed to open.
Clutching the £2 140 they had handed him, he was forced to return to the desk to ask: “Can one of you let us out?”
Heslin, 22, was jailed for two years for the raid at Lloyds TSB in Stanley, County Durham, after a court heard he had used his library’s internet to research the task beforehand.
After pacing up and down outside the bank, Heslin had entered the branch with a scarf partially covering his face and handed a female cashier a note telling her he had a gun.
Panicked, the manager handed over the cash. Heslin was caught by police at a friend’s flat in Gateshead the following day.
Peter Walsh, defending, told Durham Crown Court: “Even the manager who was present said she felt ‘What a stupid lad. What have you done?’”
Judge Neil Clark told Heslin, from New Kyo, near Stanley, that he had been naive, and that despite staff being frightened, they had never really believed he had a gun but they “couldn’t take the risk”. - Daily Mail