Drink driver jailed after killing accomplice in 'bungled' getaway
Sonny Loveridge was making off from the failed robbery of a One Stop shop in the village of Manea, when he crashed - killing accomplice John Hayden
A driver who killed his accomplice in a crash as they made their getaway from an attempted robbery of a village shop has been jailed for 11 years and eight months.
Sonny Loveridge drove to a One Stop shop in the village of Manea where his masked accomplice John Hayden got out and walked into the store holding a metal bar, Cambridgeshire Police said.
The force said Hayden, 36, demanded the contents of the till but the shopkeeper locked himself and his mother behind the tills and Hayden left empty-handed on October 22 last year.
Loveridge, 26, drove off with Hayden in a silver Ford Focus but crashed into a ditch some 10 minutes later, at around 7.20pm.
Hayden was thrown from the car and died at the scene in Byall Fen Drove near Chatteris, police said.
Loveridge, who suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital, was found to be over the legal drink-drive limit for alcohol and the car was found to have cloned number plates.
Loveridge, of Stretham Station Road, Wilburton, was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court to 11 years and eight months in prison, Cambridgeshire Police said.
The force said he had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to attempted robbery and causing death by driving without due care and attention whilst unfit through drink.
He had also pleaded guilty to an earlier robbery at a shop in Wickhambrook, Suffolk, in February 2023.
Detective Constable Pete Wise said: "Loveridge is a dangerous individual who had already carried out a violent robbery before attempting to rob the shop in Manea.
"Not only this, he drove after drinking and killed his accomplice, so I'm glad he's been jailed for a long time."
Loveridge was also banned from driving for 15 years and 10 months when he was sentenced on Friday.