Bank robber jailed for four and a half years

5:41pm Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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A bank robber caught red-handed by a plain clothed policewoman when dye in banknotes he had stolen leaked all over him has been jailed for at least four and a half years.

James Reilly, 45, had previously robbed banks in Streatham and Tooting, before being caught on a bus in Brighton soon after robbing a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Reilly, from Wandsworth, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty in May to all the offences.

The court was told he handed a note to the cashier demanding cash and indicated he was armed and ready to shoot in all the robberies, including ones at a Nationwide Building Society in Streatham and a Lloyds TSB in Tooting.

The policewoman who confronted Reilly, PC Andrea Leahy, was commended as she was in plain clothes at the time of the incident on March 4 this year.