Armed Robber Jailed for 13yrs for Raid on Laing The Jeweller
An armed robber has been jailed for 13 years after staging a terrifying raid on a jeweller's in Edinburgh with a realistic-looking replica pistol while leaving his deadly sub machine gun at home.
Matthew Ferry, who had been freed under six bail orders by sheriffs at the time, escaped with £233,160 worth of high value watches from Laing the Jeweller in Frederick Street despite being pursued by the managing director.
Ferry, 24, hijacked a private hire car with its driver and a passenger forcing the driver to go through red traffic lights to make his escape from the city centre.
A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: "It is clear this must have been terrifying for your victims - the people in the shop and the people in the taxi."
Lord Glennie pointed out that he had also admitted possession of the prohibited MAC-10 machine gun a weapon he described as a high-powered, rapid fire gun "clearly deadly if used in anger".
"Offences of violence of the kind perpetrated by you in carrying out the robbery and making your getaway cannot be tolerated," he said.
Lord Glennie told Ferry that he would have jailed him for a total of 17 and a half years, but for his guilty pleas.
The judge was shown footage of the robbery taking place and a ballistics expert firing the machine gun.
Unemployed Ferry staged the masked gunpoint raid on the jewellers at opening time on 2nd March 2 and ordered staff to put watches in a rucksack or he would shoot.
He got away with a haul of a total of 27 Rolex, Cartier and Panerai watches, but dropped three of the Rolex timepieces, worth £22,300, as he fled.
None of the other 24 watches has been recovered.
When armed police detained him at his grandmother's home they found he had a Mach 10 sub machine gun and ammunition for the weapon along with heroin worth more than £50,000 on the streets.
Ferry admitted threatening to shoot staff at the jewellers on March 2 this year during the assault and robbery.
He also pled guilty to abducting taxi driver David Bell and his passenger Euan Mitchell, illegal possession of the banned sub machine gun and ammunition and being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on 5th March.