Two men from Lewisham have been sentenced to a combined five and a half years in prison for a brazen robbery at a mobile phone shop in Woking, where they stole more than £13,000 worth of handsets. Joziah Carey-Nichols and Ousman Faal, both 22, pleaded guilty to robbery and were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court yesterday.
Robbery at The Peacocks shopping centre
The pair entered a Three store in The Peacocks shopping centre just after 11am on May 3 this year. Both wore masks as they charged into the shop and forcibly grabbed a female member of staff. They demanded she open a locked cage in the stockroom where expensive mobile phones were stored.
Once the cage was opened, the two men shoved several phones into a bag and fled the scene. Surrey Police launched an investigation, using CCTV footage, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and phone data to identify the suspects. The evidence allowed officers to trace the pair back to London.
Arrests and sentencing
Police officers executed forced entry at the homes of both Carey-Nichols and Faal, arresting them on suspicion of robbery and false imprisonment. Both later pleaded guilty to the robbery charge at court.
At Guildford Crown Court yesterday, Faal was sentenced to three years in prison, while Carey-Nichols received a two-and-a-half-year sentence. The combined prison terms total five and a half years.
Police comment on the case
PC Luke Lightburn, from the Proactive Investigation Team, said: "No one deserves to go into work and be threatened and intimidated and I can only imagine how frightening this was for the shop staff."
He added: "Our team worked tirelessly to piece together all the evidence, pursue these criminals into London and bring the consequences of their offences right back to their own front doors."
The investigation demonstrates the use of modern policing techniques, including ANPR and phone data analysis, to track offenders across county lines. The swift sentencing reflects the seriousness of the offense, which left shop staff traumatized by the incident.
