A CRIMINAL who went on the run for 15 months after an armed robbery in Ellesmere Port has been jailed for nine years.
Police launched a manhunt for Ian Styles, 47, of Whitehaven Road, Anfield, after a gang of men robbed £20,000 at the Shell petrol station on Station Road on Bonfire Night in 2010.
Two security guards were threatened with a sawn-off shot gun and a handgun in the robbery.
In November last year Paul Ware, 46, of Tarbock Green, Prescot, and David McEvoy, 55, of Balsham Close, Halewood, were each sentenced to six years behind bars after pleading guilty to the cash-in-transit robbery. They had been arrested in dawn raids the previous June.
But Styles was not caught until January this year, when he was arrested for an unrelated matter in Liverpool.
His trial began exactly two years after the incident and, following three days at Chester Crown Court, he was convicted by a jury on Wednesday, November 7, and jailed by judge David Hale for nine years for conspiracy to rob.
A spokesman for Cheshire Constabulary said: “We are pleased that this detailed and lengthy investigation has now led to the successful prosecution of the third man involved and justice has been served.
“This trio have displayed contempt and disregard for the law and for the safety and well-being of others in committing their crime.
“Styles evaded police for a time, however, we remained committed to investigating and bringing to justice those suspected of involving themselves in serious – and in this case pre-planned – and organised criminality and he will now face the consequences of his action.”
