TWO men have been jailed for an attempted robbery on an armoured car near the village of Fordcombe last year.
In July David Kirby and Sam Carlton targeted a courier van which was collecting money from the Spire Clinic on Fordcombe Road.
Wearing a balaclava, Carlton approached the driver of the vehicle, who was carrying a cash box, and threatened him with a metal weapon.
He stole the box, which contained £12,665, and the pair made their getaway in a red Volkswagen Polo driven by Kirby.
The Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad were following the men in a ‘sting’ operation and gave chase.
The car crashed into a garden on Manor Road in Rusthall. The robbers ran away and the cash box was discovered nearby.
Kirby was tasered and arrested in Erskine Park Road while a police helicopter spotted Carlton hiding in a wheelie bin in another garden.
Carlton had been involved in another failed attempt to steal a cash box in Dartford two months before, when he threatened a transit driver.
The 31-year-old from Eridge was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for both offences at Croydon Crown Court, having pleaded not guilty. He also failed to provide a sample for a Class A drug test.
Kirby, 40, from West End in Kemsing, near Sevenoaks, also pleaded not guilty and received a custodial sentence of four years as well as being disqualified from driving for five years.
Detective Inspector Gary Scarfe said: “Both offences were brazen and took place in very public places, which must have been traumatic for both the victim and other people in the area.
“The nature of the offending shows both men to dangerous individuals.”
