Man cops six-year jail sentence for robbing travel agency

Prison concept. Jail bars and metal handcuffs on the floor, dark background. 3d illustration

By Alexandra Coulton

A man has been jailed in the UK following the robbery of a Brighton travel agency, after already serving time for similar crimes abroad.

Ian Jowett, a 55-year-old from Peterborough in eastern England, has been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to robbing a TUI branch in 2018.

According to Sussex police, Jowett entered the travel agency on North Street on the morning of 22 October 2018 and handed a staff member a note that read: “Pass the money, I am not joking. I have a gun pointed at you, don’t mess about.”

Believing it to be a genuine threat, the member of staff handed over a quantity of cash before the suspect calmly left the store.

Police enquiries revealed Jowett went to a nearby pub shortly after the incident, where he left his bag containing personal papers including his birth certificate. It also contained some rolled up paper, believed to be used to imitate a gun in his pocket.

A few days later, Jowett skipped the country, boarding a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam, and went on committed similar offences in the Netherlands and Belgium, where he was imprisoned for robbery.

After serving his sentence, he returned to the UK and was arrested and charged again with robbery.

“This has been a long and complex investigation – not helped by Jowett’s attempts to evade capture – but one which we were determined to see through,” Investigating officer, detective constable Dan Aubrey-Smith said.

“Robbery is an extremely serious offence which we will not take lightly. Anyone caught and convicted of such an offence can expect to face the full force of the law.”

Featured image source: iStock/Rawf8

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belgium Ian Jowett Netherlands Peterborough Sussex police travel agency Tui uk