Video: Teenage robbers who targeted Bethnal Green casino jailed
Ahmed, Samuel and Sayid were all jailed yesterday - Credit: MPS
Three teenage robbers who threw a casino worker to the ground in an armed raid in Bethnal Green have been jailed for a total of 25 years.
Ashley Samuel, 18, and 19-year-olds Mohamed Sayid and Yahya Ahmed targeted Quicksilver Amusements in Bethnal Green Road as part of a spate of robberies across east London.
CCTV footage, released after their sentencing, shows the gang in the casino in the early hours of June 20.
Dressed in black and with hoods up, they throw an employee against one of the betting machines before attempting to force another onto a chair at knifepoint.
The raid was one of nine the trio committed at 24 hour arcades between April and June, stealing a total of £27,200.
Sayid, of Grantham Road, Manor Park, Samuel, of Granville Road, Ilford and Ahmed, of Blackthorn Road, Ilford, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob at Snaresbrook Crown Court on December 5.
On Monday, they were jailed for eight years and four months each.
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Det Con Brad Weston, who led the investigation into the robbery, said: “These men were brutal and violent in their pursuit of money.
“One of the victims narrowly escaped being stabbed. It does not bear thinking about how this might have ended had they succeeded.”
On each occasion, the gang hired a taxi from an Ilford firm to drop them off near their target venues, paying the unsuspecting driver to wait each time so they could get away easily.
They were caught after police stopped their cab on its return from a robbery in Wood Green, with detectives finding money, clothes and weapons including a 25cm long kitchen knife.
