'Idiot' Southsea robber who shot to infamy after holding up his local Gosport betting shop with rock is jailed for latest ‘highly unsophisticated’ raid at Subway

Liam Darby, 30, became infamous in 2012 when he robbed the Ladbrokes in Forton Road, Gosport, he was a regular of while threatening staff with a rock. On that occasion he drunkenly stumbled out the store with £1,600 while dropping cash - with his own barrister calling him ‘idiotic’.

Ten years on from that incident, which saw him serve two and a half years in a young offenders’ institution, the distinctive heroin addict with a large tattoo on his neck was in need of cash for a drug hit when he ambushed Subway in Albert Road, Southsea, on August 30.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard how Darby, who lived nearby on Waverley Road, was ‘hanging around’ inside the shop before it emptied out. The shop manager went out the back when he saw Darby on CCTV ‘pressing buttons on the till’, prosecutor Martyn Booth said. The defendant was asked to leave but said: ‘No I won’t. Open the till.’

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With the manager refusing to open the till, Darby said: ‘If I can’t get this I will have to kill you.’ The defendant had his right hand in his pocket with the victim fearful he had a weapon, although nothing was brandished.

The till was opened before Darby grabbed notes and coins worth around £100. As Darby walked out the shop he said: ‘Someone made me do this. It was planned.’

Darby then strolled towards the Kings Theatre when a passing police officer happened to recognise him - and knew he lived in a nearby bed and breakfast. The following day Darby was spotted by staff outside the Subway. ‘He was walking past the store toward where he lived. Police were then called,’ Mr Booth said.

Darby was arrested and denied the offence, claiming he was in Gosport and telling officers to check a 4.45pm bus to prove it. But the hapless robber was undone after checks showed he purchased his bus ticket at 5.28pm when the robbery happened at 5.05pm with the facts ‘consistent with him carrying out the robbery’, the prosecutor said.

Reading a letter out to the judge, Darby said he would ‘like to apologise’ with him admitting it ‘must have been distressing for the person involved’. He said he had a serious lung infection and due to his deep vein thrombosis (DVT) from his drug use was worried he could die. ‘I thought what could I do to get myself in prison. Since going to prison I’ve stopped doing drugs,’ he said.

Darby’s barrister Daniel Reilly added: ‘It was a desperate act. He committed the act near where he lived. It was highly unsophisticated.’ While in custody Darby has made positive changes and was acting as a peer mentor to others.

Judge Timothy Mousley KC said: ‘(The Subway manager) must have been extremely frightened. He was a vulnerable victim who was targeted and there was a degree of planning but it was not sophisticated.’

The judge said ‘remorseful’ Darby was a ‘different man’ when not on drugs before jailing him for 32 months. Darby admitted robbery and breaching a conditional discharge.